We recently connected with Troy Butler and have shared our conversation below.
Troy, appreciate you joining us today. What do you think matters most in terms of achieving success?
Success means different things to different people. For me it means having control over my professional life and future while persevering through the inevitable ups/downs of life. After 20 years in Corporate America I came to the realization that no matter what I did right or wrong, I was not in control and this motivated me to attempt to get control by becoming an entrepreneur.
In mid0-2018 I purchased a small business with 3 employees and an existing customer base that I felt confident that I could grow based on my past experience in business development. About 18 months later that plan was turned on it’s ear with the nightmare we all lived that was COVID-19. Ultimately, the pressure of that situation gave me what I wanted, which was the ability to sink or swim on my own merit to solve complex problems and find opportunity that others have overlooked. In this case, due to the lockdown all our scheduled work (commercial, residential, high-rise window cleaning) was cancelled. Rather than considering ourselves victims, we made a well-placed cold call to a large defense contractor who was in need of a team to perform COVID disinfection of their entire campus on a daily basis. We were hired to perform that work and our company grew from 6-7 employees to 30+ including some temp workers for the duration of 2019 until restrictions eased. Our sales doubled and confidence grew as a result. Our primary business came back to it’s pre-pandemic levels as the disinfection work wound down AND we were well-positioned to acquire 3 of our local competitors in 2021. As it stands today we will operate in 2024 with 20+ employees, most of whom have been with me through the tougher times.
Outside of this work, but during the same COVID-impacted era I was able to coordinate the manufacture and sale of approximately 20,000 cloth masks during the time when medical-grade masks were generally unavailable to the public.
In both cases it was about remaining optimistic and opportunistic through uncertainty & coming out on the other end with new knowledge and renewed vigor about life.
Troy, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
First and foremost, I am a husband, father, son, brother, friend and eternal optimist. A very modest upbringing and losing my closest childhood friend 1-week before high school graduation let me know that life is at times tenuous and fleeting. That early revelation really drives my approach, which is very simple: 1) have a good time and 2) learn something new & apply it.
I studied finance at Michigan State University because I didn’t have any money. I got my MBA from Western Michigan University because my employer paid for it (and I can’t pass up a great deal). I moved to Grand Rapids, MI in 2004 at the urging of some local business leaders who thought it would be best for my careere (they were right). I worked in commercial banking for 20yrs because it offered me the best opportunity to see how successful (and unsuccessful) businesses operate. My job was to determine whether or not to invest capital into a business based on sound financial, economic and risk analysis. Thousands of live case studies over the course of 20yrs gave me perspective and confidence to become my own CEO.
The most notable business venture I’m involved with now is a commercial, residential and high-rise window cleaning company doing business as Squeegee Squad in West Michigan. Having spent a number of years lending to commercial real estate developers, builders, investors and many others who own lots of real estate I began to wonder what type of product or service I could provide to people I already knew. One sunny day in 2017 as I was walking back to my office at the bank I was hit on the face with residual water from a high-rise window cleaner working above. That was the moment that I knew that I could become one of the leaders in my market by simply calling people I already knew.
Previously, I’d looked at information regarding a small company that was for sale but never considered it seriously because of my thought that most would not be willing to pay for this service. I’d never even considered paying someone to clean my windows. That changed once I realized that the window cleaners were at my high-rise office what felt like “all the time”. My other trepidation came from the company being called Squeegee Squad. Absurd… How, after 20 years of wearing a suit & tie, could I attach my name to something so silly after being involved in countless multi-million dollar transactions?! But then I realized that the fun name suits my personality and aligns well with tenet # 1, have a good time. I’ve never really cared whether people take me seriously or not and in fact I’ve become very good at spotting when they aren’t. Meanwhile I’m using their underestimation of me to my advantage.
Fast-forward from 2018 to 2024 and that 3-person window cleaning company operated most of the previous year with 23 employees and I’m now considering what I’ll do next as it will soon be poised to operate without much daily input from me. In a relatively short period I’ve become a top-5 industry participant in my market. And I don’t know really how to clean windows very well! It was really as simple as identifying an opportunity, understanding that I could consolidate a fragmented market that has low barriers to entry by working with people who already knew and trusted me. It turns out that spending so many years intensely negotiating loan terms with my clientele made me asking to clean their windows a no-brainer for them when I called.
Maybe I’ll go back to banking. That is a sentence that I would NEVER have envisioned that I’d type. I love solving complex problems and because of that my phone still rings all these years later with banking/finance-related questions. It’s everything from someone is considering an acquisition to adding a product line or an additional location. I LOVE thinking through possibilities, pitfalls, next steps and people know that a conversation with me will lead to many, many ideas; one or 2 may even be good enough to lead to action. Friends, family, former clients alike know that they can call me with tough issues or to brainstorm and after I “cuss them out” for calling me we will set about resolving whatever issue they’re having together. Everyone has a process, right? Only recently at age 45 did I realize that I’m really mostly annoyed when my phone rings or my email is stacking up that I feel that way because I prefer to remain in a daydream about what big thing to try next. I was often called lazy as a young person & I now know that it was because my mind was/is always grinding on connecting dots on any number of topics in a novel way to create some opportunity somewhere. Some things don’t change.
As it stands I am also entering season 12 at an ice cream store that employs 10-15. We found a small town that didn’t have a shop, bought land, built a building and became a member of the Parchment, MI community and a part of countless family memories over ice cream. Another daydream come true.
Who knows what’s next? It’s not something I spend any time thinking about. These days when I’m not thinking about what to do next in business I’m spending time hustling my 4 kids to/from wherever they need to be so that they can one day live their dreams. I’m living mine.
We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.
September 27, 2016 I realized that I was not in control of my life. I’d been working on providing financing for a $10million apartment project in West Michigan for a group of well-heeled investors. My work started in earnest in June of that year and all signs pointed toward this being a project that my bank would enjoy funding. Long story short – the loan committee and board of directors decided against the project, which was an absolute shock to my psyche after spending 3 months making sure that as many risk factors as possible were mitigated. We declined the loan, which was approved elsewhere within days and built shortly thereafter. My devastation was noted by the prospective client who encouraged me to go into business for myself & who ultimately helped me vet the purchase of the window cleaning company. He’s since been among my longest-standing window cleaning customers and we have literally cleaned the windows at that same project (along with 3 other large building he owns) ever since. The whole thing was about getting control of my life and I now have that.
Have you ever had to pivot?
The pivot from a comfortable 20yr career in commercial banking to becoming a fulltime entrepreneur was catalyzed by events in 2016 that made me realize that I lacked control over my life. It wasn’t until 2019 that I decided to take the leap. Of course no one could have predicted that the pandemic would have such a profound impact on us all. Add the fact that we welcomed our 4th, unexpected child during 2020 as an added challenge. Who could have known in February 0f that year that while we were in New Orleans celebrating my wife’s 40th birthday that a) we were in one of the original COVID “hot spots” packed in with thousands of sick people and b) we’d have an unplanned addition to the family as a result of maybe having too much fun :)
Through it all there was no turning back. All I ever wanted was to sink/swim on my own merit. Today my businesses are thriving and my family is doing great. I’m fortunate to say that I’ll spend most of the summer chasing my oldest son around the country while he plays travel basketball. None of it would have been possible without a stark realization on a day in 2016 about a strong need to take control of my life from the hands of others.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://squeegeesquad.com/locations/grand-rapids-mi/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GrandRapidsSqueegeeSquad/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/troybutler/
Image Credits
Image # 5810 was created and authorized by Dan Terpstra of Terpstra Photography