We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Victoria Wyman. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Victoria below.

Victoria , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you recount a story of an unexpected problem you’ve faced along the way?

The most unexpected issues that I have faced is verbal agreements with my customers. In a different time, we would be able to have agreements and resolve them with a handshake. It was said that a man was only as good as his word. I have attempted that way of business and it has caused issues every time. The reason why, is that there isn’t a way to go back to the conversation and see what was agreed upon. It’s between both parties to battle out and debate what was said. Now, I have learned that after my meetings to always send a follow up email reiterating what was agreed upon and what was said during the meeting. So that if it happens down the road again, we can always circle back to the conversation. I believe that business is like an ocean, and you will come across big fish and sharks who are looking for blood in the water. You can get angry or upset with this, or you can learn how to navigate through the mirky waters.

On our projects we occasionally have to charge for additional costs to complete a project. We have had customers verbally say yes to the additional charges and once they are completed. Then they decide to debate the price. Now that the service has been completed, then they feel like they have the upper hand. They typically ask us to take it or leave it. Most people just take the smaller amount, because it’s better to leave with something rather than nothing. I don’t believe in that way of business. If you come to an agreement, follow up with an email. Send them a contract to solidify the agreement. If they decide to not pay for the service, then you choose to go another route.

The main lesson in this, is to always have documentation to back up your agreements and contracts.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Victoria Wyman and my husband, and I own Wyman Grading and Excavating Inc. We specialize in Mountainside Excavation and Demolition for residential and commercial projects in Arizona. My husband has been in the industry for over 25yrs, and I have been in construction for 7yrs. He handles everything in the field, and I take care of everything within the office. We launched Wyman Women in 2019 which is a promo model brand for our company. One of the things that I noticed in this industry is that everything is relatively old school. In construction most companies do not focus on branding or advertising. I originally wanted to go with Wyman Woman as a strong woman that can do whatever a man can do. However, one of our followers wrote a comment on one of our Instagram posts. She said that she would prefer it as “Wyman Women” because we are featuring many women. So, we changed it, and it has been the same since. The advertising is a bit provocative, however social media is constantly selling sex and it works. I watch a documentary on Donald Trump and to help his workers work harder. He had a picture of a woman at the jobsite and the more progress they made, the women’s clothes started to come off. Let’s just say that the tactic worked. Something that I noticed with successful business owners is that they have found loopholes or creative ways to make money. I try to always think outside of the box.

A problem that we have solved with clients is quick response times and efficiency at the jobsite. We try to be as detailed as possible, we have photos, drone footage, timelapse footage to show the project from start to finish. That is one thing that companies are starting to do more of. The hard part is to do it consistently so that the customers can see our capabilities in different areas and different situations.

I am most proud of how much growth that we have been able to accomplish in the 7yrs in business. I remember when I was emailing customers in my living room and when we purchased our first loader. We couldn’t afford the transport, so we road it to our first jobsite. These are the memories that make me so proud of our business.

Lastly, I want customers to know that we take pride in our business and how we handle our business. Even if they are unable to align with our brand strategy. One thing that they cannot disagree with, is that we put in all that we have in every aspect of our business.

Can you open up about a time when you had a really close call with the business?

This is something I don’t believe many business owners talk about because it shows that we are all human. We do not know when someone is being dishonest. When we first started, we were awarded our first mountainside project. We had a contract and a verbal agreement stating that we would cover the hard dig on the house pad only. The mistake that I made was not specifying on the contract, that the hard dig was going to only be approved for the house pad and not the entire building envelope. I just started writing contracts and didn’t know that everything needs to be labeled in exclusions and if it’s not in exclusions then you have to put in detail what’s included within the scope of the contract. This was a half a million-dollar mistake. The customer threatened us and said that we have to finish it, even though we didn’t have the funds to finish the job. At the end of the project when we were all finished, the builder went out of his way to call the rental company and say to not ever use us again and it was a trickledown effect where we were black balled from a few companies. In order to finish the job, my husband and I had to not give up. We took other projects and used the profit from those jobs to pay the debt from that project. It took us about 1-2yrs to recover, this was one of the biggest lessons that I have ever learned.

If you find yourself in a predicament like this one, do not give up mentally. You can overcome this, just take it one day at a time.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

The strategy that works for us is to push hard on sending emails or complete cold calls several times a year. Cold calls are fantastic in business. The great thing about it, is that people hate it so much that they don’t do it. Which means that you have less competition. Obviously, I wouldn’t be calling anyone or everyone. Google the companies that you would like to work with and start creating a database on Excel. I used to do this every day for 3hrs, looking for new customers. If your demographics are everyday people, try to narrow down your specific clientele. Trying to reach everyone is too broad. Narrow this down by gender, interest, and area.

I have a YouTube video that shows people how to successfully do a cold call. How to handle rejection from a cold call, and what script to use in a cold call so that you don’t get hung up on. Now, I can’t promise that you won’t get hung up on, but it will happen less often.

All About Cold Calls: https://youtu.be/MG5GjUkOifs

Contact Info:

• Website: www.wymanexcavating.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wyman_excavating
• Facebook: facebook.com/wymanexcavating
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/victoriousproductions
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/wyman-grading-and-excavating-scottsdale
• Other: Youtube https://www.youtube.com/@wymanexcavating

Image Credits
Victoria Wyman Wyman Grading and Excavating Inc. Wyman Women