Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Dawnyelle & Tim Holsinger. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Dawnyelle & Tim , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Often outsiders look at a successful business and think it became a success overnight. Even media and especially movies love to gloss over nitty, gritty details that went into that middle phase of your business – after you started but before you got to where you are today. In our experience, overnight success is usually the result of years of hard work laying the foundation for success, but unfortunately, it’s exactly this part of the story that most of the media ignores. Can you talk to us about your scaling up story – what are some of the nitty, gritty details folks should know about?
Tim started the business as JRT Painting & Staining in 2007 with 2-3 employees at a time that would come and go throughout the years. In 2017 Tim started specializing in remodeling projects, which led him to change the company’s name to JRT Painting & Remodeling, LLC. This is when Tim & Dawnyelle began their business partnership. In the beginning, Tim ran most of the business while Dawnyelle helped out with some estimates here & there when Tim needed the extra assistance. Dawnyelle was a full-time real estate agent, which eventually led her to become the Team Leader at Keller Williams Advantage Realty, which helped to strengthen her business skills. In the following years, Tim searched for the right team to help him grow his business. He eventually found a well-rounded group of Painters, Remodelers, & Carpenters. Dawnyelle. joined the team full-time in July 2022. She started taking on the estimates, working on growing social media, and started to create systems to help the business run. We had some growing pains and hiccups along the way, and we made sure that we learned from each one of those hiccups. We quickly learned that keeping our employees happy, was the way to keep our company consistency & team work atmosphere. Dawnyelle & Tim had a learning experience of their own, being business partners, and being married, and to them, things work really well. Communication, listening to each other, and respecting each other are the biggest keys to keeping the company & their marriage on track. We are still learning & still growing.
Dawnyelle & Tim , 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?
Tim started working for his uncle while still in high school. He has had roughly 25 years Hands on training & experience. Construction, painting & remodeling have been Tim’s drive since high school, he always said in wood shop during high school that he was going to start his own company named JRT, because “with JRT, you’ll get a guarantee.” Tim always could pay attention to the smallest of details. When it comes to his painting & tiling work, he is a perfectionist, and he encourages his employees to be the same.
Dawnyelle acquired an Associate’s Degree in Business Management & Marketing, which eventually led her to a few management positions throughout the years, In 2008, she decided to pursue her career in real estate and she quickly realized how much she loved working with people. As her real estate career grew, so did her business & marketing skills. Keller Williams Realty teaches their Realtors how to become business owners and Dawnyelle took the skills that she learned from KW and put them to work at JRT Painting & Remodeling. Systems and Communication are key!
How’d you meet your business partner?
Tim & Dawnyelle went to the same high school and had the same group of friends. They lost touch with each other until May of 2015 when Dawnyelle called Tim to see if he worked with hardwood floors. While talking, Tim found out that Dawnyelle was newly single and immediately asked her out. They have been inseparable ever since.
Where do you think you get most of your clients from?
We’ve had two really great sources for our clients. The first is our social media marketing, we let our pictures & videos do the work for us. We provide advice and try to be informative in our posts as well. We also have a great group of social media friends that share our posts. We have 1.4K Facebook followers and we have been working towards growing our Instagram followers to that size as well. A big key to keeping your followers active is to respond every time that they respond, don’t just hit that like button, take the time to comment.
The second source for our clients is our referral business. Our goal is to have our clients love us so much that they refer us to all of their friends and family. In the remodeling business, not every project goes as planned, however, it’s how the company handles and chooses to remedy those issues that will make a client for life, as well as one of your best referral sources.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://jrtpaintingremodeling.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jrtpaintingremodeling/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JRTremodeling
- Youtube: @JRTPaintingRemodeling-ru2bz
Image Credits
Headshot taken by Hannah Pollock of “Town&Gown”