We recently connected with Shawn Talbot and have shared our conversation below.
Shawn, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s jump right into the heart of things. Outsiders often think businesses or industries have much larger profit margins than they actually do – the reason is that outsiders are often unaware of the biggest challenges to profitability in various industries – what’s the biggest challenge to profitability in your industry?
The biggest challenge to our company has been materials cost increases. We have also found that outsiders perceive our company to be super profitable, but in reality, our profits are less than a minimum wage, fulltime salary! We really do continue our business for love of it! The excavation industry has large upfront costs for materials. There have been times that we’ve essentially done a job for free, or given an 8 month “loan”, due to nonpayment. Generally, people look at boulders as rocks, and make the assumption that ‘rocks are everywhere, they must be cheap’. That’s just not the case. Another factor in profitability has been competition. Others view our company as profitable, so they decide to give it a try. They underbid us on projects, which eliminates us because we have to meet our margins. We have found that communicating with our customers has been the best way to meet all of our needs.
Shawn, 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?
Hi! We are Shawn & Brooke Talbot, owners of Image Rock LLC. We provide excavation services with a specialty in landscape rock and rock stairways. We are a team with Shawn working in the field and Brooke working in the office. Shawn has 21 years of experience in the construction industry doing excavation. His work is artistic, beautiful, functional and timely. Brooke has 15 years of experience in administrative assistance with most of that being in the construction and public sector fields. She is professional, responsible and big on communication.
We enjoy being in the mountains, playing with our dogs and just hanging out with our family. We love living in Cache Valley for the country feel, the plentiful outdoor activities, and the good people. We are happy to have our own company here in the valley and the opportunities to provide beautiful, quality work for those in need of rock work or excavation services!
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
We pride ourselves on customer service! We are responsive, provide quality work, and our flexible in meeting our customers needs. We make it a goal to move with integrity and business ethics. This is the backbone of our reputation. We established 2 customers in the same neighborhood. That allowed our work to be on display and the customers ended up recommending us to their friends and neighbors. It was that sharing of our work that built our reputation. We are so grateful for all our customers!
Where do you think you get most of your clients from?
The absolute best source of new clients has been word of mouth. Having a reputation of providing quality work has made Image Rock a name that people are happy to recommend. We have also found that we get repeat customers this way.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/imagerockutah?igsh=Y2RxcXUzb2x3dDJj
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/imagerockutah