We recently connected with Brian Staugaard and have shared our conversation below.

Brian , appreciate you joining us today. Can you recount a story of an unexpected problem you’ve faced along the way?

Collecting the money owed for services rendered.

Im not a huge money driven person. I am in pursuit of my ideal life. Yes money is a through line, but its not what motivates me, my dreams of being in control of my time is what motivates me.

Money buys car parts, but what i enjoy is building the car itself.

So the most unexpected thing in my business ownership; was after putting out multiple notices that my prices were being raised, I had a very well respected customer purposely write me a check for the old rates, and include his own invoice/ receipt. Including what he feels the rate ought be and then show me in math why he wrote the dollar amount he did.
We parted ways after that. It was unfortunate, he was a savvy businessman himself, and up to that point I highly respected him and would come to him with questions and other ventures i wanted to move onto.

Brian , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I used to build roads and highways, I quite enjoyed that. Switched from the union to a small family owned business. Things were great for a few years, but the owner never saw me grow up. So even though he continued to hand me more responsibility up to foreman and paver operators, i was always a kid to him. After a blow up one morning, i quit. Right in the beginning of the season. Not good for either of us…
Found work through my dad, building houses. Not my type of construction… two months in, I answered an add on Craigslist, went in and interviewed; now im a hottub cleaner. A pool boy if you will.

This was a great company, i enjoyed the people.i worked for, made myself indispensable by doing a solid job and being accountable. Something they didnt have. ( I would regularly go wake up and bring to work one of the other tub cleaners.)

Two years later, ive gotten 3$ in raises, and weve been talking about me taking over this route business, owner is pushing 80, they see it as just fat. Takes alot of man power, takes alot of fuel and chems. Just to much overhead for them. But ivw done the math, it churns over a 1/4 mill a year. And theres room to raise the prices of service.
So open a business, with the intent of getting 100’s (no really like 600) customers off the bat.
Ceo is dragging his feet, doesnt like to push issue with the owner much, but seems legit to me.
Anyhow its been almost a year, my licences are coming up for renew. I bring it up to ceo, but goes nowhere.
Then; he hires a older, larger fellow and starts him at my wage.
This strikes a nerve with me, I worked my way up here, and while i really like this guy, I work circles around him.
So I give my two weeks notice, and he fires me on the spot. Not gonna lie, kinda broke my heart. Guess ive been strung along, but i know what i give to this place, which is service to 120-150 customers and i do about 300 visits a month. Plus give them inventory to order more supplies.

Then i find out, the new hire quit the next day.

And so i started using my licence, i started with about 10-15 customers, got up to about 60 total over two years. More then enough for me, but never enough to be worth all the hats you have to wear to be a one person owner operators situation.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

This is an easy one. Quality. Quality everytime, every visit. Every type of service
I always guarantee 107% quality, if it means i have to come back, it means i keep that customer for life. Either the life of the tub, or the life of my business.

With a return visit basis, it means i have to win them over every visit, but i aint trying to sell nobody a new roof. I only have to find them once. Make word of mouth and advertising that much more effective.

So i take my time, I’m personable, and i have actual knowledge in my field, I’ve read up on some of the science. Nobody else in my area does that, they treat it as just a summer job, and theyre bosses over charge the customer.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

Keeping and growing clientele has two answers that are the same answer.
Word of mouth & again Quality.

My loyale customers would recomend me to anyone that asked and I would hold up my end by living up to the hype.
I aked a few to leave reviews, and they did, thia made a huge difference in landing the phone calls. Because the phone rang a plenty, but most didnt pan out because of service area, or it was a one time visit.
But those that stuck around, did so because i was true to my five star reviews.

Word of mouth was the #1 source for long term clients. And it was so because of my quality.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://sites.google.com/view/mv-sc/home
• Other: This is were i drop the bombshell that i had to close my business. Hopefully I’ll have the space to tell that part of the story soon

Image Credits

Myself or my wife