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TRANSCRIPTION WITH SPEAKERS
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[00:00] SPEAKER_01: Welcome to Canada's podcast, the number one podcast for entrepreneurs by entrepreneurs.
[00:08] SPEAKER_01: Okay Ivan, I don't know without any of you, anyone in the, you know, in the revamp recently,
[00:14] SPEAKER_01: but you are and you're at the job site, so that's cool. So let's sort of kick off things
[00:21] SPEAKER_01: by you telling us a little bit about yourself and your business and then we'll get into some
[00:27] SPEAKER_01: other questions and conversations after that. Yeah, perfect, perfect. Yeah, so I'm 20 years old.
[00:34] SPEAKER_00: I'm from Oakville, Ontario. I started working this trade about five, six years ago when I was still in high school.
[00:43] SPEAKER_00: And then I just grew up passion for it and the business aspect as well. So I started working every single day
[00:50] SPEAKER_00: and started gaining some experience. And then I had, I always had that in mind, in mind, you know,
[00:57] SPEAKER_00: break off and go for myself eventually. And this year was the year to do it.
[01:02] SPEAKER_00: I was last year, I should say, 2020. And I ended up starting construction firm.
[01:09] SPEAKER_00: We specialize in multi residential seven apartments buildings were managing just here doing all the service,
[01:16] SPEAKER_00: all the turns, renovation, drywall, taping, painting, be sports, the whole nine yards.
[01:24] SPEAKER_01: So a more of a property management company than the renovation company just curious.
[01:30] SPEAKER_00: And no, we're actually a renovation company. So the owners are the property management company.
[01:35] SPEAKER_00: We're just called to do the renovation. But we manage if there's any water damage, this kind of stuff on call 24 seven.
[01:42] SPEAKER_00: So sometimes emergencies would work over at night.
[01:46] SPEAKER_01: You're 20 years old. You finished high school a couple of years ago. Two years later, you're running your own business.
[01:53] SPEAKER_01: You've got the crew of people. I'm not going to go into numbers, but we've talked about it.
[01:59] SPEAKER_01: You're being pretty damn successful when you only started a year ago. I can tell people that.
[02:04] SPEAKER_01: Why don't you call it to university or any of that? I mean, what made you go? I got to do this.
[02:11] SPEAKER_00: So my dad owns my dad's also an entrepreneur. So I think I he's in the manufacturing business though.
[02:18] SPEAKER_00: Also in construction, he manufactures like construction products like stone and stuff like that.
[02:24] SPEAKER_00: So when I started working it and I saw there was so much.
[02:27] SPEAKER_00: There was so much growth to be to be had for anybody wanting to get into the business.
[02:32] SPEAKER_00: And I already had a neck for the neck for the business because I really did like working the job when I started it.
[02:38] SPEAKER_00: And I started before I even, before I was even in great times.
[02:42] SPEAKER_00: So I always thought this was going to be the next big thing for me.
[02:47] SPEAKER_01: But many people would say, so you do high school. And then you get like four or five years to kind of screw around and do stuff you shouldn't do.
[02:57] SPEAKER_01: What the heck is boom. You know, you're out of high school and you're starting this.
[03:04] SPEAKER_01: Maybe I'm old school, but it's kind of weird.
[03:09] SPEAKER_00: No, it's just I don't I don't even know other words to put it. You know, I just I love the job.
[03:15] SPEAKER_00: I loved growing the business. It wasn't even so much for the money that was coming in. It was more for just the way we ran the jobs, which escalated for us to grow.
[03:25] SPEAKER_00: Like you know, it led to us for us to grow because we work so hard.
[03:30] SPEAKER_00: And when we tried doing the best job every every chance we got the opportunity to show us our work.
[03:36] SPEAKER_00: That escalated for our growth, right? So we started just myself and I would say just under your wife, I said to myself.
[03:43] SPEAKER_00: And now we have about 10 employees full time.
[03:46] SPEAKER_00: Three commercial vehicles, warehouse and the whole nine yards and the.
[03:50] SPEAKER_00: So what's the best thing that you found about being 100.
[03:56] SPEAKER_00: There's more there's more downside that people don't talk about.
[04:00] SPEAKER_00: People think all the upside. I'm still on the downside. I'm still working so much, you know, working around the clock.
[04:05] SPEAKER_00: But one thing is that you do pick your own schedule.
[04:08] SPEAKER_00: But if you are trying to succeed, you you are working even more than than you want.
[04:12] SPEAKER_00: Right. Some days I'm putting in 16, 17, even 18 hour days.
[04:16] SPEAKER_00: And then I'll get a call in the morning emergency and I like to I like to attend to it myself.
[04:21] SPEAKER_00: Not even just the crew. I would like to go to it myself and just to meet with the management companies, just to make sure we're we're keeping them happy.
[04:30] SPEAKER_00: And then they they can help other management companies and then we can grow together.
[04:34] SPEAKER_01: You talked about the downside, but there must be an upside of being independent, you know, being the boss having work force of 10.
[04:45] SPEAKER_01: What's what's the up mean there must be, you know, you still you I know you've had a had a crazy year or so.
[04:52] SPEAKER_01: You know, but but there must be an upside for you to keep doing it because you could stop it.
[05:01] SPEAKER_00: You know, no, for sure. Yeah, there is an ups there's obviously an upside to you know, you get financial freedom.
[05:07] SPEAKER_00: You're making most most likely more than you would if you were working for somebody.
[05:12] SPEAKER_00: You have more time on your hand if you can manage if you have good time management skills.
[05:16] SPEAKER_00: And it's just a simple love because you're growing something that you own right to what when I work every day I like to go to work because I know I'm working for myself.
[05:24] SPEAKER_00: I know that I'm what I'm creating is an asset for myself in the future.
[05:28] SPEAKER_00: As far as the lifestyle it is good. You can you know, like this kind of job construction.
[05:34] SPEAKER_00: A lot of people tend to work weekends and stuff like that. So if you're good with management, maybe you don't even work Fridays.
[05:39] SPEAKER_00: You know, you have a little bit more time if you can if you can manage your time better.
[05:43] SPEAKER_00: And nobody can tell you right you have to go at nine o'clock to five o'clock every single day.
[05:47] SPEAKER_00: So you're a little bit more lenient on your schedule time.
[05:50] SPEAKER_01: So with COVID pandemic, whatever that you want to call it, most people many businesses in last year have gone down.
[06:02] SPEAKER_01: Why have you this I mean, is it is it is it luck or is it something else?
[06:08] SPEAKER_00: I don't think it's luck. I think it's hard to work, you know, because I started before the pandemic was even in the midst it was just before.
[06:16] SPEAKER_00: I would say we're we're like about a year. I think I started the business in early January.
[06:22] SPEAKER_00: So the pandemic hasn't really had an effect since the start of the company. We were still really good.
[06:29] SPEAKER_00: I think it's the renovation business and the construction business actually was actually growing during the pandemic because a lot of people are working at home.
[06:38] SPEAKER_00: And they saw stuff to be done in their home.
[06:41] SPEAKER_00: So that was actually a big aspect of our growth and I think in during the pandemic.
[06:46] SPEAKER_00: So I think that actually helped us instead of, you know, for restaurant businesses and, you know, retail and that's a very bullish.
[06:53] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's right.
[06:54] SPEAKER_01: So, you know, I'm sure in the last year you've hit some kind of unexpected challenges.
[07:02] SPEAKER_01: Have you put something in motion to handle those challenges? Have you got any good experience that you can pass on?
[07:12] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I do. I like, you know, like when I started, you know, I was kind of more like, oh, we're.
[07:18] SPEAKER_00: I acted like we were bigger than we were to say I would, you know, anytime I saw somebody I wanted to hire, I would tell them we would hire them without even having enough work.
[07:27] SPEAKER_00: But I wouldn't tell anybody I would just keep that to myself, you know, so that was a challenge for me because I wanted to grow so fast.
[07:34] SPEAKER_00: Not that I wanted to grow so fast, but when I saw somebody I liked and I saw the way he worked and he asked me, oh, can we have a job, can I have a job for you and stuff like that? Can I work for you?
[07:44] SPEAKER_00: And I offered them, you know, if I liked them a lot, I would offer them even not knowing if I would have the work, but it ended up just scaling.
[07:53] SPEAKER_00: I would work even harder to make sure we had those contracts and everything in motion, but as far as like a decline, there's been weeks and even months that've been a little bit slower.
[08:03] SPEAKER_00: And, you know, we weren't pulling in as much capital as much revenue as I would like.
[08:08] SPEAKER_00: And, you know, I would just work harder trying to make everything better, trying to save on material, try to work on our marketing schemes to make the phones ring more just to make sure we have enough clientele to keep everybody busy and to keep us profitable and to keep us growing.
[08:23] SPEAKER_00: And I'm going in a good motion, so there hasn't been too many ups and downs locally, but there has been a few, you know, dreadful months that haven't been the best right?
[08:31] SPEAKER_00: I think every business basis that the most the best piece of advice you've ever received.
[08:38] SPEAKER_00: My best piece of advice, and it's probably not going to sound the best because I heard it from somebody.
[08:43] SPEAKER_00: Not the best product is sold the most and that's the same with this business.
[08:50] SPEAKER_00: There is the best people, but sometimes they're not a big company.
[08:52] SPEAKER_00: They're just two, three guys and they'll do the job better than the company with 2030 guys, but they're not advertised the same.
[08:58] SPEAKER_00: So I think it's, I think it all relates back to marketing.
[09:01] SPEAKER_00: You want a business, your marketing's got to be number one and your management's got to be close to number one as well.
[09:07] SPEAKER_00: So I think that's that's my best piece of advice, you know, work on marketing, learn how to do the job.
[09:12] SPEAKER_00: But if you want to go for yourself, you're marketing and you have to you have to have so much, you have to be so informative about the job and so informative about marketing to make sure that you guys are going to succeed.
[09:24] SPEAKER_00: I don't think there's any other way to do it.
[09:26] SPEAKER_01: If you weren't doing this, what would you be doing instead?
[09:30] SPEAKER_00: Oh, as far as if I wasn't doing the trade or the company.
[09:33] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, if you mean, well, you know, this is something else that kind of is there that might be good.
[09:41] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, well, I was a, I was an athlete in, you know, high school, you know, I played soccer and everything and when I was young, I was good.
[09:46] SPEAKER_00: I always thought, you know, maybe I could go to Toronto, I've seen this kind of stuff, you know, play professionally, but I was never that good, I guess.
[09:52] SPEAKER_00: So that dream kind of died when I went to high school, you know, you kind of realize, oh, you're not even, you're not even in the same same room as those guys are even close to.
[10:02] SPEAKER_00: So I kind of that dream kind of died down early, but as far as other careers, I never really wanted to be anything else.
[10:08] SPEAKER_00: I think I started so young that I got it.
[10:11] SPEAKER_00: And I liked it when I was young, I used to always watch buildings get built and renovation and construction development, and I loved it.
[10:18] SPEAKER_01: Okay. All right, just some quick questions. I asked people.
[10:23] SPEAKER_01: Are you a morning or a night person?
[10:26] SPEAKER_01: Sounds like you're like 18 hour a day person.
[10:31] SPEAKER_01: I'm chill. I'm both.
[10:34] SPEAKER_00: I'm early morning.
[10:36] SPEAKER_00: I'm 5.30 a.m. in the morning up and I'm sometimes, you know, 2 a.m. in the night.
[10:42] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, or 2 a.m. in the morning also.
[10:44] SPEAKER_01: I think you keep up with the stamina.
[10:47] SPEAKER_01: Even though you know, you try to hit me, you know, you do get tired, you know, yeah, you do.
[10:52] SPEAKER_00: For sure you do, but I don't know.
[10:55] SPEAKER_00: I like, I like all balance my schedule.
[10:57] SPEAKER_00: Let's see if I had, let's say it was a Friday and I thought, oh, maybe we're going to go with a couple of friends and go out and stuff like that.
[11:04] SPEAKER_00: I was staying up late.
[11:06] SPEAKER_00: Maybe I could start a few hours later on a Saturday, you know, but during the week.
[11:10] SPEAKER_00: If I end up making that kind of choice, I won't risk my work ethic and, you know, getting up at that time to be on the job to make sure everything's running smoothly.
[11:19] SPEAKER_00: As far as balancing, I think I'm still young.
[11:21] SPEAKER_00: So I'm a little bit more flexible with getting up and like I can do a little bit later nights and early mornings.
[11:28] SPEAKER_00: That's it.
[11:30] SPEAKER_01: So if you have to pick one word to describe yourself, what would it be and why would it be that work?
[11:39] SPEAKER_00: I would say unstoppable.
[11:41] SPEAKER_00: And I would say that is because I've been told so many times, even by, like, you know, relatives and stuff like that, they say, oh, you know, like they see you and they say, oh, you're growing too quickly and, you know, some like I've had some bad things, you know, like happen in my career.
[11:55] SPEAKER_00: Maybe I'm not, I'm not describing it in the best way, but, you know, I've had some downs where it's been like, you know, been problems, like, you know, getting up the next morning.
[12:05] SPEAKER_00: I said, oh, was it really worth it?
[12:07] SPEAKER_00: I'm not making that much money this week.
[12:09] SPEAKER_00: Oh, it's so much stress and, you know, not enough end result there and at the end of the day, like I kept going, going, going and, you know, like, I feel like it would take like an army to get me down to the point where I will go back to work and to get back up until like, and that all that all that all relates back to mental health as well, right?
[12:29] SPEAKER_00: Because this all goes back down, you know, when somebody's going through something and stuff that works affecting them and then, you know, it can kind of spiral causes spiral effect on them to go downwards in the way they operate.
[12:41] SPEAKER_00: They're not working as much.
[12:43] SPEAKER_00: They're getting a little easier. They're letting things fly that they wouldn't that they shouldn't as well.
[12:48] SPEAKER_00: And I feel like for me, like, you know, I've never had that case at least in the last year, especially when I started.
[12:53] SPEAKER_00: I've always even on those down days because everybody has down days. I've been just striving to get to get back up and to just keep on keeping on.
[13:02] SPEAKER_01: And I'm sort of still sort of trying to get this magic of how you can grow.
[13:07] SPEAKER_01: I mean, is there something that I've missed that says, how do we get from zero in January 2020 to XXX zeros?
[13:21] SPEAKER_01: And, you know, how many people 10 people would whatever on payroll?
[13:28] SPEAKER_01: Was that just energy? Was it contacts? Was it? I mean, how how did you get there?
[13:37] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, for sure. So I've always heard, I think you've heard the expression as well. It's not what you know, it's who you know.
[13:42] SPEAKER_00: That's completely false, especially for most entrepreneurs. They'll realize that once they start scaling the business,
[13:49] SPEAKER_00: you can become a person that people want to know. So even if you start with one contract, and you get, you know, there's always a little bit of luck in play in my opinion.
[13:57] SPEAKER_00: You know, you get one lucky contract and, you know, you exceed expectations.
[14:02] SPEAKER_00: And this can, this can channel a spiral of effects. So it wasn't really so much context for me. I didn't really have any, I didn't know anybody right when I started.
[14:10] SPEAKER_00: I was just doing some small stuff here and there. I didn't, I wasn't even working every single day of the week when I started because I didn't have enough work.
[14:19] SPEAKER_00: So it wasn't contacts for me. It was more energy. And I would say just grinding to put it in the moderate way.
[14:26] SPEAKER_00: Just working every single day, trying to do our best. I worked with the marketing.
[14:31] SPEAKER_00: I'm a really good marketer. Like I market on a lot of platforms and stuff like that.
[14:36] SPEAKER_00: Try getting new customers and then with the existing customers, they help us as well because they give us more work or they recommend us.
[14:43] SPEAKER_00: So our business is a little bit different than a person that's going into, let's say, I don't know selling products and stuff.
[14:52] SPEAKER_00: Because a lot of the time they're looking for a new, a new person every time.
[14:56] SPEAKER_00: For us, we have a lot of reoccurring customers. As you see here working on eight buildings, these are reoccurring customers for us.
[15:03] SPEAKER_00: So they own maybe another 40 buildings with other companies as well. We just start with them with a few buildings.
[15:10] SPEAKER_00: And once they realize they like us more than possibly the current people that are servicing them.
[15:15] SPEAKER_00: We end up, you know, overriding all the contracts and growing that way as well.
[15:19] SPEAKER_00: So I feel like that's been like a huge play for us.
[15:22] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's it.
[15:24] SPEAKER_01: Apart from work to get that. What's keeping you off at night? I mean, is it anything that's keeping you off at night?
[15:34] SPEAKER_01: Apart from work?
[15:35] SPEAKER_00: To be honest, no. There's like, you know, there's this this year has been kind of hard.
[15:40] SPEAKER_00: You know, I do like going out. I do like, you know, interacting with others. I do like going to social places to have fun.
[15:46] SPEAKER_00: Apart from that, there hasn't been so much mostly work.
[15:51] SPEAKER_00: I do like what I do. So when you know, when I'm working at night or what's keeping me up to sometimes thinking about, you know, the company and growth.
[16:00] SPEAKER_01: Just sort of as a conclusion without giving away secrets or anything like that.
[16:07] SPEAKER_01: Is there something is a some kind of approach that young entrepreneurs should take to get them success?
[16:19] SPEAKER_01: Because a lot of people slide in and out of entrepreneurship and ventures at the beginning of their careers.
[16:27] SPEAKER_01: And I just wondered if there's something, you know, without giving any any any of your kind of own own ingredients too much.
[16:37] SPEAKER_01: Is it something you can pass on to others?
[16:40] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, for sure, for sure. So I think I think the main thing is finding common interest with what you want to do.
[16:47] SPEAKER_00: If you're an entrepreneur and you know, you can, you know, sell stuff, manage stuff, like, you know, you have a business side to yourself.
[16:53] SPEAKER_00: I think the best thing to do is, you know, find something you really, really, really like. So I like this. So that's why I dived into this business and I was able to succeed in it.
[17:04] SPEAKER_00: That's what I truly believe. Like, you know, forget the marketing and everything else. I really, really liked what I'm doing. And I really do like what I'm doing now.
[17:11] SPEAKER_00: I think that's the biggest ingredient in success. If you don't want to, if you don't want to sell something or you don't want to do what you're doing right now, you're not going to grow it.
[17:22] SPEAKER_00: It's, it's just not going to happen. Or even if you do, it's not going to be as easy for you.
[17:27] SPEAKER_01: Okay, well, look, it's come to end, but you know, we have a lot of listens, a lot of viewers. And it was us. This is, how can list this viewers find you online?
[17:38] SPEAKER_01: Is it got any questions?
[17:40] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they can, they can reach out to me a direct message on Instagram or they can even email me at even total pro home services at gmail.com.
[17:51] SPEAKER_00: Or they can, or they can direct message me on Instagram at even be mirric.
[17:58] SPEAKER_00: And they can direct message me asking me any questions. I'm sure to respond and help anybody out. I can.
[18:04] SPEAKER_01: That's great.
[18:05] SPEAKER_01: Ivan, next, that's wonderful. I really enjoyed the interview and thanks for coming out. Candace podcast. Really appreciate it.
[18:13] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, thank you so much.
