Are you curious about what it takes to build a multi-million-dollar painting business from scratch? Jeff Sommers, owner of ESP Painting, Portland’s most well known painting company, has done just that, and he joins us to share his incredible journey. As a boy, Jeff learned the painting trade from his father. His story is one you won’t want to miss as he shares how he started and reached his first million and beyond.
Together, we dissect the victories and stumbles of successful business owners in the painting industry and offer up practical advice you can apply to your own entrepreneurial journey, no matter the sector. We talk strategy and financial management, emphasizing keeping overhead costs low and the importance of managing finances to avoid unnecessary purchases. In the digital age, a strong online presence is vital, and so we explore effective marketing strategies, like leveraging Google Ads, SEO, and customer reviews to pull in potential clients.
We also take a close look at the customer experience in the painting business. Jeff offers his insights on writing estimates, overcoming objections, and maintaining a remarkable customer experience. We believe that learning is a lifelong process, and making mistakes is part of that. So, whether you are an aspiring painting contractor or an established entrepreneur, this episode is rich with wisdom and tips for success. Let’s paint a picture of success together!
Thanks for listening! Follow us on Facebook or go to ClikWiz.com to schedule a free Growth Acceleration Session!
Transcript
ClikWiz Mike:
Welcome to the Painting Profits podcast, where we interview successful painting business owners and industry leaders so you can scale your painting business to seven figures and beyond. I’m here, or I’m your host, mike Williams with ClikWiz, and I’m here with Jeff Sommers with ESP Painting out of Portland Oregon. Jeff, welcome to the show. Thanks, Mike, appreciate it. Yeah, so let’s get started with your story. Tell us a little bit about how you got started and what path in your life led you to the painting business.
Jeff Sommers:
Well, I had to always. I grew up in a carpenter’s house and my dad always tried to find things for us to do, so had me start painting and doing odd projects and things like that. He watched me roof a house. It was totally crooked and he had to redo my work so he knew I wasn’t going to be doing anything. He saw me with a hammer man. That was bad, that was a big nail, so you name it. Screws were on the sideways. He said, well, maybe he can all jump Right. And so I was the jump. I was the jump, I could do that. Okay, he taught me how to paint really quick and I caught on and it was actually was therapeutic for me. It was a great time for me to think and connect and really think about, you know, ponder life and everything that’s going on. Okay, and listen to music, right, yeah, and I think that’s how a lot of painters start out right. They get connected and it just it does something for them and it’s a way to make money. And at the time I was really young, so I just you know this, painting a couple of rooms here and then I need a summer job. So I was calling and I called a couple of people and got a job painting and I had to use a sprayer, learned how to use other equipment. I was 18. And then later in life I went to it and at 23 I found myself in my own business, or no wait, 23 or 24. Anyway, it was around there. It’s been a while. I’m twice that age now, so just had a fantastic time. It’s starting the business. It was really hard, you know. We did a lot of grassroots marketing knocking on doors, passing out flyers, talking to anybody that I could at the paint store, sometimes even hanging out at the paint store waiting for somebody to walk in and see if I needed help with colors I was pretty bold at that time and chasing business. So it was a lot of fun. So that was, let’s see, 1996. Yeah, similar times. Yeah, similar time. But really what helped catapult the business is my wife and I were pregnant with our first child and I had to go make money. I graduated college in December, winter term 1995. Three days later our son was born and she had his six. I started the company.
ClikWiz Mike:
Yeah, having kids will really change your perspective and really get you motivated on it. Yeah, and I’m pretty sure it makes you grow up pretty quick. It sure does Cool. So was that ESP painting? Did you start out with that, or did you have another business before then?
Jeff Sommers:
No, I started out with that.
ClikWiz Mike:
Okay.
Jeff Sommers:
Yep, my last name is Sommers. Everybody calls me Sommers. I didn’t want to be a traditional painting company name Sommers painting, because I didn’t want those questions. So do you only paint in the summer, or stuff like that? So I thought of an acronym Extrasensory Perception. We know you need your house painted, yeah, okay, and that just kind of stuck. It’s clever.
ClikWiz Mike:
Okay, and so what is your current annual revenue?
Jeff Sommers:
This year we’re projected to do somewhere between 2.5 and 2.6 million. Okay, Great.
ClikWiz Mike:
So how many? And you have in-house painters, right, you don’t do subs.
Jeff Sommers:
I do both.
ClikWiz Mike:
Both.
Jeff Sommers:
Okay, yeah, I’m a mix. I’m about 50-50 this year.
ClikWiz Mike:
Okay, so you keep your in-house painters employed full-time, year-round, and then the subs as much as you can.
Jeff Sommers:
The subs are very seasonal or if we have specific projects that would call for a sub in the winter, we would use a subcontractor. Okay, but generally speaking, they’re mostly exterior and our employees would be interior, right?
ClikWiz Mike:
right. So how many full-time painters do you have currently? We have 11.
Jeff Sommers:
Okay.
ClikWiz Mike:
So how long did it take you from when you started to get to that first million? A year mark.
Jeff Sommers:
Well, in actuality, mike I I paused, let’s see 1996 I grew the company To about half a million over the course of Three years and then put a pause on painting and I started a different business in a different town. That didn’t go so well. Okay so you know, I borrowed money from my father-in-law to rent the U-Haul to to drive our suit to be repossessed, are behind the U-Haul to move into my parents house. That was a lot of fun. So I started from ground zero again. Um, and in 2003 is when I started back up in the painting industry. Okay, so I really took a break For a couple of years. Okay, oddly enough, uh, I did painting in the other business too, but that wasn’t our core business. I actually did painting to keep myself from going broke, okay, so that kept that business afloat. I was painting to make money to keep that business afloat. And it just got to a point where it didn’t work anymore and and I was hired, so In in 2003 we started and by 2006 Three years, and we got to a million. I think it was. 2006 was our, our first million.
ClikWiz Mike:
Okay, all right, yeah, so when you got back into it, uh, was it pretty much you doing the whole like a one-man Show, like just you doing the painting, or I started out directly with employees.
Jeff Sommers:
Uh, I was still out in the field doing a painting a little bit here and there, but I really, um, I really made it a point when we restarted in 2003 that I I knew it was going to be a business and not I’m just something to make money to pay bills. Right, I really wanted to, firmly did. I had read the emiss at that time. Uh, that was, I think it was popular book around 2000-2003 and that really made an impression on me. Yeah, and so Michael Gerber and his um, uh, numerous stories of entrepreneurial seizures becoming real businesses. It was very, very interesting. Um, you know, I really hope that I could do it.
ClikWiz Mike:
Okay, yeah, yeah, it’s a great book I highly recommend. If you haven’t read it. Everybody should read that, if they’re, if they’re in any business.
Jeff Sommers:
Yeah, it’s, it’s phenomenal.
ClikWiz Mike:
So what were some of the uh, the best decisions that you’ve made kind of along the way, um with with growing your business, um best decisions.
Jeff Sommers:
Keeping overhead costs low, I think, was a really good decision. Um, I was. I knew construction for a bit and that was part of our revenue, but I would never really make that much money out of it. I I did that more to keep guys busy. Well, I could get repaints. I think the biggest Um. I think the biggest um, the best thing I did was in 2006. I switched my. I started, uh, getting rid of new construction like crazy and built the repaint business 2007, 2008, uh, and then, you know, over the course of a couple years, we started to really grow and we got. I think we were at 1.4 1.6 million Uh, and then the big recession hit and, um, I’m glad I wasn’t tied to a builder at the time because a lot of what? Oh, my god, it’s a lot. So, businesses, because of that, yeah, I had a cash flow and I had a client base so that I could tap into Uh. That was probably one of the best decisions that I made in the business. Overall, I was making that shift, um, because getting cash now is a lot better than waiting 30, 60, 90 days or begging for the cash hoping that you can get paid from a contractor. Yeah, so that that was one of my best decisions, I think.
ClikWiz Mike:
Yeah, I hear that a lot from, uh, from painting companies there that have worked both sides new construction and residential repaint and the, uh, the new construction, um, you know the, the, the work is there when times are good, but when it drives up it’s, it drives up quick yeah, pretty quick yeah, and plus you’re reliant on someone else for your livelihood, right, all right. So what were some of the biggest mistakes that you’ve made besides Moving and starting a different business?
Jeff Sommers:
Um, buying things that I didn’t need and I thought I had the bunny. I think that’s one of the big mistakes. You know, a lot of contractors say like, well, I’m gonna buy that you know big truck at the end of the summer, and then you get this huge payment and then something happens in throughout the winter and you’re basically Are starving. You’re eating. You know you’re not eating a steak, you’re eating whatever leftovers you can scrounge up from the freezer and in February and you wish you had the money and not the stupid truck that’s in the driveway.
ClikWiz Mike:
Yeah, yeah. So new trucks, only new for a month, right?
Jeff Sommers:
You’re right, but the thing is is, uh, you know, people look at it like the tax deduction. They don’t want to pay the taxes. If you really look at the numbers, though, if all you’re doing is giving a payment, uh, or trading in your tax burden for a payment to the bank, you’re actually better off just paying the taxes. If you don’t need the vehicle, sure sure your, your tax liability is even lower. Um then, if you would have the vehicle?
ClikWiz Mike:
So yeah, yeah, especially at today’s interest rates. Right, yeah, all right. So um, let’s uh switch over into marketing. Um, what, what are? Your what kind of marks marketing Are you currently doing? What’s, what mix are you currently employing for to market your business?
Jeff Sommers:
Uh, well, we’re doing uh google adwords, seo marketing. We’re doing some marketing through uh next door app, some yelp here and there, but I’m not, I’m not paying for leads, I’m doing the marketing to get noticed. Okay, one of the key things with like uh yelp is is having the reviews. If you are a five star Rated review company, or even you know 4.8, um, and you’ve got 30 or 40 reviews on there, people look at you. Yeah, the people are smart enough that they know that they’re getting hit with all the people that are paying for the advertising. But if they don’t have any reviews, they’re probably a little shaky on if they’re gonna call or not. Yeah, so having those reviews on there is really important. We’re doing, you know, we’re the mouths. We’re talking with homeowners asking them if they know of anybody needs painting. We do target our homeowners are, you know, client lists with emails. Every so often, occasionally, I’ll put an offer out there, but I don’t like doing discounts. I would rather add value than a discount.
ClikWiz Mike:
Okay, how do you do?
Jeff Sommers:
that just by saying you know Painting let’s say you know To room special paint. Paint one you know, get the other one half off. It’s not necessarily a discount but you’re getting more work Right and usually you know, once you’re there for one room and you put two painters in there, they can easily get two rooms done. Okay, so it’s. It’s a value to the client, you’re getting more work, you’re in their house and then you can ask to see if they have more rooms that one they want to have done there. They know of anybody that wants a painting done. Yeah, okay and you find an idea.
ClikWiz Mike:
Sure, yeah. Do you find just the process of reaching out here to past clients like that? Does it spark, even if they’re not necessarily interested in the offer They’ll. They sometimes will say, oh yeah, I don’t need that, but I need my garage door painted, or my my mother-in-law needs needs something painted, something like that.
Jeff Sommers:
Yeah usually yeah, okay, yeah, so just a snowball into into other work or other opportunities, or maybe it’s not, maybe it’s not now, maybe it’s later, but that’s okay too.
ClikWiz Mike:
Yeah, yeah. So just just keep keep in contact with your past clients, because they’re yeah, that’s, that’s the the cheapest way to get more work, right.
Jeff Sommers:
It’s the most cost-effective way to do that. I and I’ll be honest, I’m not the best at it, but when I, when I do reach out, the phone does ring, I will say that yeah, okay, even even doing some sort of a donation, like we’ve done, paint it forward and past and it’s even created work. People are excited about it. I love getting back to the community. It’s a great opportunity to do that and it does. It does get work.
ClikWiz Mike:
Yeah, for those that don’t know what paint it forward is, can you elaborate on that?
Jeff Sommers:
Sure, for us it is when Somebody needs painting and can’t afford to have it done, and so what we do is we ask our clients to nominate people through a Google form and Nominate people who they think would be a good fit for that, and then In the form, I ask for their story, just a little bit of information about them, and then here at the office we go through them and then we read them to our painters and we talk as a group and and I let our painters choose who we’re gonna do the work for. And last year we did and it wasn’t huge, it was two bathrooms, but we did quite a bit. We painted everything ceilings, walls, trim, we replaced some trim, did some cabinets for a couple, and it worked really well and it was just great it was. It was a lot of fun, good spirit, and Through that they told everybody they know who we are, yeah, and they’re all. They’re all people with homes that could possibly need some painting services. So that was really good.
ClikWiz Mike:
Yeah, so how do you get out to get the, the story of your painted forward out? Do you blast on social media? Do you use any? Do you boost the the posts on social media or local newspapers?
Jeff Sommers:
Yeah, we, yes, we have done a lot of that in the past, for sure, okay, yeah.
ClikWiz Mike:
Okay, so back to Yelp. How do you or do you have a process for getting reviews on Yelp to you specifically ask your customers for, for Yelp reviews?
Jeff Sommers:
Actually all of our employees that trained To ask for reviews. Okay, and the way they do it is. We have a scan tag on the back of a regular business card and it says please, please, give us a review. Okay, and on the scan tag it links to a Channel that has you know Facebook, yelp, google, and they can choose where to put the review. Okay, great, now the employees. I tell them, please write your games on the back of the card. If it’s somebody that that mentions your name, then I give them a little bonus for that. But you know, I, I know, paying, paying for Google reviews is not a good thing. They frown on that. So, definitely we incentivize employees, but in a in a way that I think is Not incentivizing the homeowner. Right to give us a review yeah, and there’s.
ClikWiz Mike:
There’s nothing wrong with that and you know, there you’re not supposed to incentivize Getting reviews and I highly highly recommend you never do it with Yelp because they’ll just they will tear you apart. Yeah, they’ll put a big red warning on your, on your page, that Warren’s users that you’re trying to get fake reviews and stuff. So I definitely don’t want to do that. But but you know, sometimes, especially for newer businesses when they’re just getting started, it helps to. You know, sometimes you got a. You know pay, pay a customer. You know, give them a $10 Starbucks card, I’m sure review or something, just to get those first few flowing. But but yeah, natural is much better and if you can incentivize your employees, all the better.
Jeff Sommers:
Yep yeah, I think I think a review, when people read it to you To show some personality of the business, actually having them list a name of an employee saying you know, maricio did an amazing job, was really impressed with him and his crew and I want to thank the guys for doing it. I I think that says a lot about the business, rather than saying ESP does great work.
ClikWiz Mike:
Yeah, do you? Do you respond to all of your reviews? I?
Jeff Sommers:
I try.
ClikWiz Mike:
Yes, I Haven’t been as good yet this year, but I’ve responded to Numerous, not all okay, I highly recommend you do, especially on Google, google X, to see that it helps not just with the, with your prospects who find your reviews online, but also with with your SEO. That does help. Google likes to see that. So that’s good. We’re about to say you get a lot of referrals. Do you have a process for asking for referrals, or is it just kind of organic?
Jeff Sommers:
Most of it’s organic right now. However, I have asked them and it’s just like Simple when we’re doing an estimate maybe you know somebody in the neighborhood who might need their house payment to. Okay, right, you know a lot of our, a lot of our clients have friends and family who love to refer to someone, or if you have anybody that you might know that could need some painting.
ClikWiz Mike:
All right. So what would you say? Your top lead sources are right now.
Jeff Sommers:
Top lead source is client referrals.
ClikWiz Mike:
Okay, good, that’s awesome. What percentage of your revenue do you allocate for marketing?
Jeff Sommers:
Not enough. In the past few years it’s averaged around the 3-5%. Okay yeah, so not enough. This year it’s changing quite a bit.
ClikWiz Mike:
Yeah, a lot of things have changed this past year, yeah, so I think you can count on this change. Yeah, you know, you make hay while the sun shines, but you also got to be ready when times get lean. So how has your marketing changed this past year or so to keep the work coming in?
Jeff Sommers:
We definitely increased our spending on Google.
ClikWiz Mike:
Okay.
Jeff Sommers:
In your neighborhood postcards, working on that and bringing back some more direct marketing.
ClikWiz Mike:
Yeah, okay, the in your neighborhood postcards. How do you do that, is it? You just go through the postal service and blast it out to a zip code or what.
Jeff Sommers:
No, it’s through Send Jim. Send Jim, how do you spell that? The CNDJIM? They do perimeter marketing so, for example, you could house where we’re working on, you can put in the address and mail. You know 25 homes or 50 homes in that area, nice, okay, and with the yard sign out there at the same time, and then they see us working in the neighborhood and it just kind of rings a bell. Yeah, they’re starting to connect that with more of marketing through like Facebook and stuff as well, so you can kind of tag team that it’s starting to be more and more common.
ClikWiz Mike:
Yeah, in between that and setting up the Facebook pixel on your website and all that, and then seeing your Google ads, building that omnipresence can really, really, really make a big difference. Great. So what does your sales process look like? So, once you get a lead, how do you manage that lead all the way to the point of sale Actually, I should say more like to the point of to when the job’s finished?
Jeff Sommers:
To when the job’s finished. Well, we have softwares that connect through Zapier from the beginning to the end and you know the client does get a confirmation of the estimate and we call 30 minutes before we go to the estimate just to ensure we ask during that time that we will need at least 30 minutes to an hour and that also says it in the email. But we ask for it again and then we ask if we can introduce ourselves really quick before we walk around and take a look at the project. So the sales process would go the salesperson shows up on time. If you’re going to be five minutes or more late, then you have a call or a text letting them know that you’re on your way and then we go through our typical sales process. It starts with a statement about who we are and what we do and what our agenda is for the appointment, and then asking the homeowner specific questions, walking around the house, doing our takeoffs, things like that. Once we’re done with the takeoff, we spend a little time to write the estimate. Our goal was to write the estimate right there, if we can, and present the estimate and then overcome any objections and see if we can get the person on the calendar. If they’re a serious buyer and they don’t want to make the decision, I totally respect that. But I do show them what the next steps are and how they can get on the calendar. I think it’s important that they know that part of the process so we can get them scheduled. Then we have our follow-up process, which is usually called emails, texts and then going through. Once person’s onboarded, our office staff will take care of getting the rest of the documents needed, helping out with colors and things like that. And then, moving forward to the week of the paint job, our project manager will call coordinate anything that needs to be coordinated. If we’re going to have a subcontractor crew, we definitely talk about that. We are upfront with the homeowner. We let them know that we’re using a subcontractor that will be managed by us. It falls under us. I think being straight up about that’s important, not having a bait and switch, so to speak. So once that painting project is in motion, our project manager comes by or communicates daily with the homeowner to make sure that they know what’s going on. And then we have a final walk-through and a collect the check and or credit card payment at the end of everything and asking for reviews and referrals and then moving from there into what it looks like our relationship looks like over the next couple of years. As we’ve worked through the job. I think it’s a pretty standard process and that’s just kind of the roundabout way of doing it.
ClikWiz Mike:
Yeah, what do you use for your CRM and estimating and software?
Jeff Sommers:
Our CRM is called Copper. Okay, and what Copper is? It’s a web-based application that sits in Gmail and it reads all of our emails and categorizes our email conversations, and so we can keep pretty good record of what the client said, what they didn’t say. It’s also an app on the phone that you can text through, you can make notes and we can attach all our documents to it, so we have a good record keeping process. It also has a pipeline that will move people through the pipeline as we move forward.
ClikWiz Mike:
Okay, what are you used for estimating?
Jeff Sommers:
Right now we’re using Estimate Rocket.
ClikWiz Mike:
Okay, yep, and then you use Zap Air to connect the two. Yeah, to connect it.
Jeff Sommers:
So I guess our tech stack I think that’s the term, yeah, acuity for scheduling appointments, estimate Rocket would be Copper. We use a time clock called VeriClock right now. Okay, and it’s just our record keeping. For time reason we’re using a base cam for running the jobs and then, of course, quickbooks, ebo.
ClikWiz Mike:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. It’s important just to be able to have that, this, a CRM and the connectivity between them, just to prevent holes and people falling through the cracks. Yeah, in the staying age it’s a must have.
Jeff Sommers:
There’s a lot of different.
ClikWiz Mike:
CRMs out there.
Jeff Sommers:
Yeah, there’s a lot of CRMs and you know what? I’ve looked at a ton of them. They all kind of do the same thing. You have to just pick one and stick with it. Exactly, I think that’s my advice on it.
ClikWiz Mike:
I used to use copper a while, a long time ago, and it was a good, simple basic CRM. Doesn’t have a lot of the crazy Bosnian missiles that some of them have, but the connectivity to Gmail was really nice.
Jeff Sommers:
Yeah, yeah, it’s actually saved us quite a bit.
ClikWiz Mike:
Yeah, just finding something and sticking with it and making it work for you, I think, is the most important thing. You don’t necessarily need the newest and hottest apps out there. Sometimes that shiny new object syndrome can just really slow you down.
Jeff Sommers:
Yeah, for sure, I can totally attest to that, I can. I’ve done that numerous thing. If you ask anyone in the office, it’s like every year of what’s this guy going to come up with now?
ClikWiz Mike:
Well, that’s our job, isn’t it?
Jeff Sommers:
I’m the visionary. I’m supposed to come up with all this stuff.
ClikWiz Mike:
My wife, who’s kind of my partner in crime here as well. It’s the same relationship. I come up with these changes and she’s like, oh god, what now?
Jeff Sommers:
Yeah, well, I was scolded last year pretty badly, so I think that we’re sticking with what we got right now.
ClikWiz Mike:
Yeah, yeah, well, that’s good, yeah, great. So how do you ensure, with either your painters or your subcontractors, how do you really ensure a great experience for your customers?
Jeff Sommers:
I think the biggest in in assurance is communication. It’s communicating the process and being there to answer questions. Being excited about being there, I think, is a big deal, especially during a final walkthrough. Looking at the house wow, what a significant change. How do you feel about this? And then they get to tell the story of yeah, I just the first time I saw it, I drove up, pulled in the driveway. I felt this rest of reassurance that I mean the house is taken care of and I love the color. It’s really easy to get caught up in as painters as saying, oh well, we did this and we did this and we did this and we did all this and you don’t customer, doesn’t? They do care about that, but they don’t want to hear about it. They want you to listen to how awesome. It makes them feel, yeah, and I think building on that rather than doing oh, but we double check the caulking here twice and yeah, you’re going to get some people that may tear your job apart. That’s just those type of people are out there and just listening to them understanding what they want, restating it back, you can fix those problems, yeah, yeah, but I think it’s just listening and building on that is a big deal.
ClikWiz Mike:
Yeah, that’s powerful and yeah, it’s really all about how the work makes them feel and not necessarily the technical parts of it, right?
Jeff Sommers:
Although I’m really interested in the technical, most people they’re not.
ClikWiz Mike:
Yeah, Well, cool, how do you? Well? First of all, how do you find the best painters when you need to hire?
Jeff Sommers:
Usually just through asking our employees. That’s been a good place for us. We’ve done some. We’ve done some recruiting through some schools with some mixed success. But we’ve had a few kids come through. When I say kids, I’m talking 18 year olds yeah, that really work out. And then they find out that you know what, this isn’t a fit, I’m going to go back to college. Or this isn’t a fit, I’m going to go. We had one painter who went to auto body school and now he paints cars. But it seems to be like a training ground for entry level position that somebody could learn and find out if it’s something they want to do. Sometimes I’ve used Craigslist. I know that’s a. It’s a can be really tough Occasionally we find somebody through there. It’s just a mix of things Asking around in any organization you might belong to. If it’s a networking organization and that’s how I got a couple of employees through our LITIF networking organization and other people are hiring at the same time, we are and someone might not be a fit and so we share those leads back and forth. Okay.
ClikWiz Mike:
Nice, what’s your process for you know, for weeding out the best from all of the applicants. What’s your hiring process there?
Jeff Sommers:
It’s about situational questions. Okay, that’s pretty much it. Can you give me an example? Yeah, for example, let’s say you’re painting in someone’s home and you found that something was broken and you didn’t know if it was anybody on the crew. How would you approach other crew members about that and would you tell anybody and why? Okay, and I get to see character. Yeah, I can’t train that, that’s innate. That’s something that they were built with. Yeah, I can. I can correct some mistakes here and there for painting, but man character can’t do it.
ClikWiz Mike:
No, that’s good, and so you’ve obviously built a great team and you have a good culture. How do you, how do you cultivate a good company culture?
Jeff Sommers:
I think it’s through communication, it’s through respect. I think having fun together is important and we laugh a lot during our training meetings and we’ll do some role playing every so often and that’s always fun. That brings the fun out. Definitely, having some contests, having some a company party or get together, I think those things are really important to create culture. It’s important to keep things a little bit light but yet have some seriousness to it. Just being serious all the time is not fun for anybody. Yeah, so keeping a little bit light is important, but making sure that people understand that you’re serious about the business.
ClikWiz Mike:
Yeah, good, well, awesome. Any any last words of wisdom for up and coming painting contractors that you’d like to give?
Jeff Sommers:
I think the best thing that has served me well is the fact that you have to be willing to listen and learn, and you have to be willing to make the mistake or have somebody help you with the mistakes that you’re making. It’s part of the business, it’s okay to ask for help, it’s okay to not be the one who’s always right, and you can learn a lot in this business and only about the phone business, but about any business. A lot of the skills that you learn here in running this business actually correlates directly across to numerous businesses across the board. So I just say, be willing to learn and listen. I think, along with that, build your network. Building a strong network of people that you know and meet with, that know, like and trust you is super important. Sorry, mike, but it’s not always the internet.
ClikWiz Mike:
It’s a really big deal.
Jeff Sommers:
Old school grassroots stuff is networking groups, belonging to organizations where you can. Relationships is huge. I think that’s really important and I see younger businesses missing.
ClikWiz Mike:
Yeah, yeah, because a lot of the younger guys they’re probably going all in on digital and not out there in the community and building their network.
Jeff Sommers:
Yeah, and it takes time. It takes time to build that network. It’s not an overnight thing.
ClikWiz Mike:
It does, it takes. It’s an investment. It’s an investment in your time, but it pays dividends.
Jeff Sommers:
Oh, definitely. For years, years and years, things come back around.
ClikWiz Mike:
Yeah, well, great Jeff, I think this is a great conversation and I really appreciate you coming on the podcast here. And yeah, thanks a lot, I appreciate it.
Jeff Sommers:
Oh, you’re welcome. Thanks, mike, for helping me with my internet forever, for all the website stuff that you’ve done and the rebuild after rebuild, after rebuild, so I appreciate your hard work at that.
ClikWiz Mike:
That’s my pleasure and thank you for being a great client. I appreciate you. All right, I appreciate it. Thanks, thanks.