A $40 Million American Dream | Podcast Ep. 138 | Toolbox for the Trades

Hello contractors and welcome to Toolbox for the Trades. Today I am speaking with Adam Fusman and Stan Bacarin from Few Services in San Jose, California. But they have many other locations. We're going to be talking about how to grow very quickly and I'm really excited to welcome them here today. Adam and Stan, welcome to the podcast.

Hi. Hi Jackie. Hi. Sirius Titan and all viewers and subscribers to these wonderful YouTube channels with all the time watching and happy to watch all the time, Jackie and all the people who has been on this YouTube channel.

Awesome. Thanks so much, Adam. I really appreciate it. Now, you are the CFO of Few Services and Stan, you are the CEO, is that correct?

That's right.

All right.

Awesome.

Awesome. Well, we are going to get into it because you guys have been in business for about six years and you are pacing to hit 40 million, which when Stan told me that a few days, a few weeks ago over zoom, my jaw dropped to the floor. So I'm going to talk to you guys today about how you're doing it. But before we do, we're going to do a icebreaker question for both of you. So Adam, my icebreaker for you is how would you change your life today if the average life expectancy is 400 years?

Was 400 years, I will quit from the Fierce company and like whatever I have like more than 350 years and I can do something more relaxed maybe, I don't know. So I have no idea. Honestly. If this something happened and the scientists will find out how to live much longer, I believe we will have to figure it out about what we're gonna do with all these population happening right now and I don't know. So the future is feasible and maybe need to invest more to science and more to technologies and find out more new planets as maybe Tesla does Elon Musk trying to do with SpaceX. So we'll see.

All right, so you're going to quit Few Services and you're going to go into space travel if your life Expectancy goes to 400 years?

Hard to say honestly. So I don't know.

That's totally okay.

I don't know. It's very hard question. I will produce more kids.

Produce more kids for sure.

I don't know. It's. It's because the life expectancy, if I will, it depends on, on kind of what kind of age I going to be the first 200 years. For example, if I will be the same shape like right now as I'm right now, like I'm 38 years old guy. And if I will be 200 years more, the same shape as I am now, I'm like a golden years of mine mind. And I believe 200 years, if I will be the same age, same condition, same beauty, it's gonna be very nice to have all these ages for 200 years more because the everything is going to be downgraded in my life in Maybe in closest 10 years, I think so. And if I will have 200 more years, I said like, holy smoke. Yeah, I will produce more kids.

Sure, sure. Yeah. I mean it's a very, very valid question that we're now asking on this biohacking podcast, which is what will we look like as we age to 200? But thank you for that answer. I love that. Where your mind is thinking or where your mind is going. And Stan, I have another icebreaker for you. A little bit easier maybe. What book did you read that changed your life the most?

That's a complicated icebreaker.

It is a complicated icebreaker. What is it?

Because lately, to be honest, I don't read books. I usually read either.

Some manuals.

Manuals. What manual changed your life?

How to do the business better.

How to do business better. Or yeah, or maybe some listen. Some podcasts. Actually, I'm your fan. Yep, I watched all of them. Oh, really excited to be here. If we're talking about book, I think the last one I read it was Species. Species.

Oh, I heard about that book. About how the human being evolved over.

Exactly.

Oh, very cool. That's been on my list. Did you like it?

That's a really good book. Yeah, I liked it. It really synchronized with my thoughts in my head what I already thought about religion, about life, about just a human being in general. So it impressed me a lot. Like how all these thoughts, they combined in one book in one place. Yeah, that's the one I would recommend to anyone who wants to read book now to man. Doesn't matter.

To anyone. Yeah, I've heard great reviews about this book, so I'm happy to hear that you also endorse it. I will now be checking it out for sure. Species. Yeah. Yeah.

May I answer the same question?

Yes, of course you may.

I maybe it's just to change a little bit my mind about my opinion to everyone, to the old people and about how we help, how I help to all people. So I read, I listened the book which is called no, no more Mr. Nice Guy. And this is kind of very interesting book regarding. About the relationships. Oh, maybe Inside the family, inside the friendship, Inside the company. Something like that. So I little bit change it. I read it, I listened it maybe one and a half years ago. The latest book which is changed my kind of mind a little bit and it's called no more Mr. Nice Guy. Yeah. So.

Tell me, how did it change your mind? What was the big thing? What was the big revelation?

I was, I've been very kind to everyone, kind of trying to help everyone I, I met and this is, was killing all my time, all my energy and right now I'm more concentrating on myself and right now I started to learning in Boston University for mba. I put all my energy to self education.

Very cool.

Yeah. And it's, it's by, it's just a helped this book me to change my mind to spend more time on myself and like to my friends which are close to me, very close to me, not to everyone.

Yeah. So reserving your energy for the people that fulfill your life the most.

Yes.

I mean I think there's so much to be said about someone who runs a multi million dollar business like you do and, and not having your energy be so sucked up by people that maybe don't deserve your energy. You know what I'm saying?

Everyone deserve but just trying to concentrate on something because if I'm not concentrating on someone it's like just unfocusing as well. And this is very hard to be focused on something just because a lot of people working, a lot of franchisees were running and everyone trying to get your attention and this way we are, I'm trying to get more focused.

Yeah. And we're going to talk about your franchises in quite a bit because you guys have 25 of them, right?

For right now, Yes.

I mean that's incredible. And you started business six years ago. So I would love Adam if you could tell me the story of few services. How did it start?

I came to United States seven years ago. Seven years and three months ago in March 2016. And in Russia I've been for 12 years as a IT system administrator, informational technology specialist, as an IT manager as well. And my dream was work for Cisco in Silicon Valley but became here as a kind of undocumented immigrant. I've been put myself to the appliance repair field because this is a work was not requiring any kind of special documents. You just have to know how to use the tools because I am kind of not kind of. I'm a real electrical mechanical engineer by my education so. So it was easy switch to me and I started to work for my friend and then I Realized what it's better to try to start something new instead of the working force to someone and because doing the work to the someone in the big oil companies in Russia where I'm from is. It was very tough to put myself to the same situation when someone like telling you what you have to do all the time.

Yeah. Having a boss versus being in charge of your own.

Yeah. Because I, I, I, when, when I came to the, when I came to the United States I I started to like to make a videos on my YouTube channel. I'm YouTuber and my Russian YouTube channel called Adam. The Russian YouTube channel called Fuseman and English version, it's called Adam Fuseman. And I started the Russian version of the YouTube channel and my boss in the appliance repair company was asking me like why you spreading the old secrets of my company? What the heck? What's wrong with you? Can you delete this information please? Or I can fire you.

Oh my goodness.

Or like I will not put jobs to you. Like I said, okay. I tried to. I, I did it, I did it for him few times maybe because it was like a censoring and I hate it. Yeah, the same thing happening a few times in my Russian work because I made a few times the pictures I shouldn't have to make incorporate events with my general manager. And I am all. And I am and I, I've been almost fired for this thing. It was funny, kind of stressful. And then I said like after one year of working for my friend, I said let's try. I will try to start my own company. I've been trying to be hired for the kind of IT companies but this the starter salaries was lowest lower than I have been gaining on the appliance repair field. This why I decided to try own business. So I created the company which is called Just like I registered the company in March 2017 which is called. It was called Fuse Service LLC.

Yeah, can I just stop you real quick? I just love how you came to the United States and within one year you started your own business. Like what a United States story. What an American story. Like not like coming here and then not liking how your boss was treating you. And then you know what? I'm gonna go on my own and do my whole thing. And you'd only been in the country for a year.

The thing is, I believe I've been experienced already with all this stuff happening in carrier in my career so. And the thing is I didn't have, I still don't have the green card and like the people who just have work authorization in the United States or even don't have any, like a real. The green card or like a permanent living card here or like a passport. US Passport. We kind of hear. I'm. I'm not want to say like second row, but we all the time trying to be like, yeah, he's good guy, but he's. Something wrong with his paperwork, so. Or it's like we have to request his i94 form or something else. We've been going through this thing all the time by trying to get any loans for the business because we still don't have any green cards or US Passports. But we find out already, like, it's been like, not hard to find who gonna give us the loans for the business or whatever the money to gain more money in the business. But the first thing, the first firewalls. Firewalls we've been going through, it was like, guys, you don't have a permanent citizenship or whatever.

Yeah.

What are you asking? Like, go away.

So I like that you're saying this because unlike other folks who've come on my show and talked about how they started their own business, they were technicians first. In your case, appliance repair wanted to start their own business. You had this added obstacle of not having citizenship yet. So that was a barrier to entry.

We still have this obstacle.

And you're paying 40 million.

Both of us. Both of us. No green card, no passport, guys. And you are like saying, oh, guys, the life is in the United States. It's very hard. You know, I'm just have to go to the streets and gain the money. Come on, guys. It's easy economic. It's very high, very strong Here in the United States. The money is just growing in the trees.

It is, yes. They say that's what they say. So you guys both are still have these citizenship challenges, but you created this really big business in less than a decade. That's insane to me.

Yeah. Because. Tell the story how you came to the United States. Why did you came.

Why did I came?

Yeah. Yeah, go for it. Because right now we have you starting your own business, Adam Fuse Service, llc. And Stan eventually comes into the picture, so I would love to hear. Stan, how did. What made you come to the US and how did you get. How did you get in with Adam?

I just looked at my watch to see if it's to my Rolex. My Rolex, I just looked if it's. If today is 14th or not. Because I believe I came here exactly six years ago. Nice like maybe a week, week away from six years. So when I came here I, I had a business in Russia and I had, I had couple businesses in Russia and.

During one legal, another and illegal.

Okay.

They both okay.

Stan's like, okay, okay, this is, this is going to go on the Internet. So could you be nice to me right now? Business partner.

Yeah. So when I came here, I decided, okay, I'm not gonna do business. I'm tired of was enough because I was in the business since 18 years old and I had my university degree during my business and it was just a lot. And I was like, okay, I want to work eight to five, five days a week and I don't want to do business, I want to work for maybe IT company. And I came with a dream. I'm going to be one day maybe software engineer, but I'm going to start with QA.

Quality assurance.

Yeah. And I watched several YouTube bloggers, including Adam. But Adam, he was a little bit more on techy stuff. He was trying to do some appliances with the time when I watched his videos and other guys, they were in qa. So I watched his videos and one day he was like, okay guys, I decided to open a new company, it's going to call Fuse, I'm going to do it on my own and blah, blah, blah. He was so, so excited about it and he was like, actually I'm going to hire. So if you are going to be here in the United States or if you're already here, you're welcome to just email me and stuff like that. I was like, let's try. And I called this guy just on the phone because I think you had fun even down below in your YouTube video. He didn't even bother to make a fake number.

No, this is my real number. Go for it.

I called this guy, he was like, yeah, you know, just stop by and we'll talk. Yeah, looks like you know something. I was like, okay, let's do it. So we met and I started working for him. Second day after we met, I forgot.

About his call, honestly.

You forgot about his what?

He came to United States and said, I'm here, I'm gonna come to you in like a few minutes. I said like, okay, we'll see. And I was doing something on the backyard on my like a multi unit apartment. And he's like, come. I was like, what the heck? What are you doing here? Very nice, beautiful man. Like did you came with his wife that time?

I don't remember. So no, I think I was on.

My own he was. Was very more tiniest than right now.

I mean, yeah, I gained a couple pounds.

So, yeah, that's how we started.

That's incredible.

I honestly, the. The. The Stan, he is a second employee in my company. During the first months, I decided to hire the remote dispatcher. And I just published the video. What I'm looking for the dispatcher who can work for me remotely. And the first guy who came to my company was guy from Ukraine. And this is how we started. So I was doing something by hand. He was receiving the calls. And then Stan came. And.

Here we are.

And here we are. And then it was just easy. And then now we're pacing ahead 40 million. We've got 25 franchises. And that was it.

No, the first year, 2017, we've made six since March. About $220,000 revenue.

In 2017.

In 2017. Yeah. So in 2018, we've. We've gained revenue about $550,000. Okay. And 2019, it was $2 million. All right. Because 2018, I already. I got my H vac license and I offered to Stan, like, man, come on, who gonna like. Are you going to quit h. Wonderful H Vac business and go to the IT technology? Why? Here's a H Vac power. This is all money you have in the world. The world is gonna suffer about the heat. Cool. And all that stuff. So let's get help the people to suffer together.

It was a break point for me personally, because when we worked just. It was a small company. We worked in small garage. And it was just maybe like seven of us. Right?

Yeah.

And were you running calls, Stan, or were you doing calls?

We both did.

All right.

And at the time when Adam got his license, he offered me to join him as a partner and open just a different company. Open Fuse Service Inc. Yeah.

Because we had the LLC limited liability company and we switched to the S Corporation because this was trouble for getting the license with less fees for the just obtain the license.

Yeah.

Less bonds have to be paid if you run the company under the S Corporation.

So it was just a smart business decision essentially to make that move.

No money decision.

So I just want to pause real quick.

Okay. It's it. Yeah. Smart decision.

It was a smart decision. I want to pause real quick because I don't know if you guys have ever heard the founding story of service titan, but Ara and Vahe are first generation Armenian immigrants. Their parents came to the US From Armenia and they went to the best schools and they had dreams of becoming working for Facebook, for Google for, you know, Bay Area tech companies. And over the summer, they built software for their dads, which would become service titan. So I think it's really funny that both of you came to the United States with goals of joining Cisco, becoming a software engineer, and you have found yourselves in the home services industry. I think that's very funny. Like kind of a parallel immigrant story here. A little bit different, obviously, but very cool.

I believe all immigrants stories like that. So you have to quit, quit, quit United States and try the new start in the Russia, in Ukraine, guys.

That's what I'm going to do. I'm going to start Toolbox for the trades. And in Russia. No, I'm not. Okay. So I need to know before we get into growing the business, because I know that's basically how you grew. You started from appliance and you added. You added also plumbing. Plumbing and electrical. What is it about Stan that when you met him, first met him, you were like, yeah, you can work for me. Like, did you just have a good vibe about him? Were you like, yeah, I'll give this guy a try?

No, he said he'd been doing his business in Russia with all equipment he was working. He was very handy guy. He was showing me what he'd done before with his hands with his previous partner in the. In Russia. So you've been like, oh. I said like, that's cool. So it's kind of. It's going to be easy work for you.

Nice. So, all right, very cool. I love that you're using YouTube here as a early recruiting strategy at the beginning of your company. Having the dispatcher come in as well.

It's just like a side effect of having YouTube channel.

I'm glad you said that because we had a gentleman on maybe like 40 episodes ago, Armando from Plomero in Phoenix, and he went viral on TikTok. And since going viral on TikTok, he has had no shortage of techs who want to work for him now. So I think this really underlines how when you build a brand online, like in YouTube, and you get people interested in working for you, it could be a recruiting tool. So I love that you shared that.

Yeah, absolutely.

All right, so I. So you've added multiple service lines at this point, right? I know you said started out as appliance repair. Now you do H vac, plumbing, electrical, and you're working to get your. You're waiting to get your public works license, right?

We already doing public work.

Nice.

Yeah, yeah, it's. We already have everything set and right now we're getting public work contracts. Actually we have the whole department working on public work right now.

Very cool. So I would love to know what are the biggest lessons you've learned as you've added new service lines to the business.

When you're doing something and we've been doing like H Vac already five years, I believe. And these processes we still like optimizing, but it is already optimized maybe for 90% electrical and plumbing. We have to optimize more and more because there's a lot of things we have to improve in terms of the getting more leads, more jobs, get more services, providing more services for the customers like EV chargers, electric panels, upgrades, energy backup storages, and then solar installation, any heat pumps, water heaters. So all the things we're trying to get more knowledges, we're like collecting knowledge base in our company and just trying to get more people and get more leads to the our company. It's hard. It's not hard. It's just getting time and everything. Almost everything is just, just about money because it's impossible just to do everything. Like you started the company and tomorrow you can get, you can get $10 million in revenue. It's impossible. It's just impossible. So everything, it's, it's like taking time. It's taking time and I don't know. So we're just trying to get better best technicians to our customers, best trainings to our technicians. So we're going through all these processes. Yes, we have about maybe 70 people right now working on H Vac in our San Jose office. About 10 electricians and just three plumbers. But the thing is, our goal is 70 people h vac, maybe 50 people or maybe even more electricians and even more people technicians for plumbing. And then I can tell the San Jose, it's a successful company right now. We just in the start.

So basically, as you're opening up these different service lines, you're trying a bunch of different things. You're looking for new opportunities based on you were saying with electric, like installing EV chargers all the time. And you're just kind of looking at what is the need in our service areas and growing and trying stuff as quickly as you can.

Yep.

Anything you want to add to that, Stan?

I would say, yeah, I would say when we open a new line or new direction, where we're going, like where we opened electrical division, division, or when we opened plumbing division or solar, there is all the time some point where you open this new direction and you're thinking like oh, it's going to be great. I saw this guy, he's doing this stuff and he's really successful at it or some company successful at it, whatever. And maybe in a month or two you're getting through the point where it's just not going well at all. You're. It's all the time in my head at least like you all the time. It's like, should we give up? No, it's just, it just doesn't work. Like we don't know how to do this thing. And it's, it's happening all the time with any division we opened electrical, solar, plumbing. We went through the point where we were thinking it's, it's not gonna work. And we were trying to find out the way how we supposed to do it a little bit different from the stuff we did before and what makes it really successful. And we're trying to find this success points, what we need to, what we need to work on or how to make this thing work. And after we polish or do our homework on this stuff, it's getting better. So I would say, yeah, it's an advice. Don't give up for sure. If you feel like it's not getting long, it's, that's not how it's supposed to work. Just stay calm, think about it. Think what needs to be improved, what kind of tools you're going to use. And I'm not talking about like physical tools, like software tools. Yeah, whatever. And it's possible. Just don't give up.

Yeah, I like how you said it's in my head all the time. Like, oh no, this isn't going to work. How do you overcome that?

By just experience.

By just riding, riding it. Just.

Yeah, just, just thoughts in general.

Yeah.

Sometimes we find out ourselves. So we are very over sure in ourselves. Oh yeah, it's like, oh yeah, it's going to be easy. We've been doing this like for years. It's going to be all electrical easy. Like, like, oh, oh, oh, oh. It's like why we have to call the PG that just to cut these feeders. Oh no, guys, we got a fine from the PGE because we cut the wires ourselves. Oh come on, someone like just to cut the water valve for the whole building. What's going on? Like why the police came? Why? Why? Like what's going on? Why the whole Hotel Marriott is just so overflowing with water. Why we get like a fine for $15,000. Not the fine, it's just like a compensation for the flooding for the Whole hotel. It happens.

It happens. Okay, so what you're telling me basically is you go in there just insanely confident, just very, very sure of yourselves.

Not. Not really all the time, but all the time. We're like flying. Yeah. Come on. Like it's easy sometimes.

Yeah.

Yeah. All right. I mean, hey, that's a way to do it. I wish I had just like a modicum of that, of that like assurity myself. Like, I wish I could go in with that kind of energy.

The thing is, it's energy like you are kid, you 5 years old and papa give you $5 and you feeling happy. You can like buy all the thing you want in the store. And like that feeling, it's. If you bring to your existing age, it's like. It gives you a lot of energy. Yeah. Just don't think you are adult and feel yourself, the kid and you can do whatever you want.

So basically fill yourself with the excitement you had when you were five years old. And that's why you want so many children. That's why you would continue to make so many children.

No, I just like the process.

Fantastic way to end that question. So I would love to know, as you guys are growing so more or less, you were giving me the revenue projections year over year, Adam. And it sounded like you were basically doubling, doubling. And then eventually you kind of like skyrocketed. So I'd love to know who were some mentors and best practice groups that coached you through your growth and what did you learn?

We're learning all the time. So the first thing which is changed my mind. It was a Russian course about the business development and how to grow the business. And it was all about the delegation, the processes. So that was meaning for me. Oh, I doing the things I don't have to do. I just have to write all the things I'm doing right now during the day and then just put all the things to the my purse to the person like who will do all the things much better than me.

So delegation.

Delegation. The delegation is the first thing which I learned that time. But the first thing I've learned with Stan, it's trustworthy. I mean, you have to trust to the people.

Yeah.

Because if you don't have this feeling, you like, don't trust your like wife, partner, whatever, you're trying to get everything under yourself and everything is temporary.

Yeah, okay.

It's like a 400 years. It's temporary as well. But we kind of have like, okay, 60, 70 years. Maybe the tomorrow or today, it's the Last day. So you have to trust someone to. To delegate your processes, the things you're doing right now. But it's like just. You feel you're wasting your time by doing the. That stupid manual operations.

Yeah. So the first big one was learning how to delegate and realizing, like, I have to start trusting people.

Yeah. Right now I am like waking up every day and someone put pants on me. I'm just kidding, guys. It's not about. That is undeligate. It's not. It cannot be delegated.

That cannot be delegated. That's a. That's a very personal task that you have to keep within.

Yeah. And I hate right now that this self education, it's the thing I cannot delegate as well.

Oh, getting your MBA from Boston.

Yeah, absolutely. I hate it.

Oh, my gosh. I'm finishing up a master's degree as well right now and I'm miserable. It's very tough. But I commend you for doing it. That's really awesome. Boston's a great school. Stan, I would love to hear your thoughts on the other courses that you guys have taken. I know you've done great stuff with Praxis and that's really where you learn systems and processes to streamline the business. So tell me a bit about that. What were some of the big things you guys learned?

So I think we already had some processes in place and we have some systems in place where we joined Praxis. But at the time when we joined Praxis and how we joined Praxis, so there was some point in the business and in our business career where I felt like we're just staying, we're not going anywhere, nothing happening.

Stagnation.

Stagnation plateaued. I mean, basically even at this time, we grew pretty, pretty well. But all this excitement and ambitious, like, guys, we need to do something. I don't know, something is going on. You know, is this feeling like nothing is going on. It just ate me from inside. And we started looking for some business community or business group where we can. Which we can join and which we can learn from. And it shouldn't be a Russian community. Nothing bad about Russian community. It's good we learned our lesson and we learned our classes with these guys. But it's supposed to be something local, you know, to get to know local business, local rules better, how it works, how it. How this big company is, how they operate their business. And that's how we found proxy system and we joined their group and we went to. I think we went to Florida, right? Yeah, we Went to Florida, me, Adam and our business partners. And it was just mind blowing, jaw dropping thing.

Like oh my God, it said so sounds easy. What? We are not doing this.

All of us. We went through three or four days. Three days, I think. Yeah, three days. Course my brain just burst. It's just exploded. I was like, wow, there is no limits. Like you can reach. I just such a high peaks. There is no limits.

I like what, how, how he said the guy, this is a United States. You can do whatever you want.

Yeah.

Nicholson said, like, this is United States, you can do what you can do whatever you want. Guys, like what the heck?

So you were at Praxis, your minds were being blown.

After, after Praxis, we came back to our place and we implemented a lot of things. We implemented some strategies, some approach how it's supposed to work. But at some point we were like, you know, software we're using now, it doesn't really work the way we just learned. Like, come on guys, we need to change it. And we signed up contract with Servicetizing right away, as we usually do. We were in sales, presentation, Take my money. One guy got really excited and he was like, yeah, we're signing it right now. So we signed it and I think it just was a bad time where we did it because we had to be ready before summer campaign. A lot of things is going on. We implemented a lot of stuff and.

We were like, ah, it's too tough to switch tests. Too tough. We just, it's hard.

We need to have like a break.

For the record, I have been at Service Titan for as long as you have been in this country, Stan. And yeah, no, implementing onto Service Titan is a big task. I think that is definitely not a secret. You have to have someone dedicated to moving all your processes over.

Oh yeah.

So you guys got wooed and you signed the paperwork right away and you found out very quickly that oh, we have no, this is not going to work for us.

Right, Exactly. So. And we went back and forth like this. Yeah, yeah. We were like, oh, what did we do? So we went back and forth with Service Titan and Service Titan, they sent us a really big bill which we weren't going to pay. We're like, nope, we're not going to pay it. It's not happening.

Service Titan sent us Trian Horse. Oh yeah, it's called Trian Horse of Service Titan. And his name is Tom Hord. Tom Hord. So he met, he invited us to his business in Fresno. He showed us how everything's supposed to Work. We said like, oh my God, really? Okay, take my money one more time.

I think Tom was third. Third angle of this pyramid of learning, I don't know, educational process or something we went through because just give us.

A punch to the butts.

Seriously. I hear. So first, this Russian group where we learned about delegation. Second, it was Praxis sustain itself like a big community, big group. And third guide was Tom Hoard who showed us how he operates his business and what he's doing in his business, how he's using Service Titan. And they're like again, we're like, wow.

Two explosions in one year. Like why we're so stupid. Why we're so stupid. Stupid.

What year was this by the way? 2019 you said.

I think we met with him two years ago.

2021.

No, it was 2021.

2021, yeah.

Okay.

Yeah, like, yeah, 2021.

It was about two something years ago. Yeah, yeah.

The first time.

Yeah.

And so Tom showed you the way and then you guys buckled in, you got Service Titan. And what did you see after you had Service Titan up and running? What changed?

It changed a lot because it's all processes still. It's under improvement process and if we will find out all the things, how it's supposed to work in the CRM system, it will be just a rocket ship. Right now we're just building it.

Right now you're building the rocket ship and it hasn't.

You're getting ready for it in service state.

Yes.

Wow. Because we still trying to understand how it should work better under Service Titan. And there's a lot of things we have to improve because and Service Titan supposed to like improve a lot of things in their own. But right now we have a lot of much more data we can operate and see how each technician have to work his goals, what he, how, how he, how he did, how each dispatcher did yesterday, today, what's going on with all the calls, how many time the technician spend in one customer, how long. It's like taking the time for the trip to another. So it's a lot of information we didn't have before.

Got it. And that allows you to be more lean, allows you to tweak processes or maybe they're dragging so you're able to grow faster.

Yep.

That's awesome.

Yep.

I like how you describe this process. Building a rocket ship.

Building a rocket ship.

Building a rocket ship with few services. So speaking of rocket ships and growing really fast, you adopted a franchising strategy to help you retain technicians. Because I believe the issue you were running into, you were getting these techs started. They were doing great and they wanted to go on their own. But you didn't want that to happen.

Yeah. This idea was invented in the cult garage in 2018, after maybe five, six months after I got my H. VAC license. And nothing can halt employee in your company. Nothing. Absolutely. Any goals, any cakes, cookies, whatever things you can try to offer him, any money? He said, no, come on, I gonna do much better than you're doing in your business. My business going to be better than yours. And it was, okay, take my flag with fuse name with no money and just to go another city call yourself use the same company. We're gonna get big network. If I will have the call from that city because they got my lead from maybe YouTube or whatever, I will send it to you, that lead to you directly. So we've been, I've. I've been. We've been spreading this franchise for free. Absolutely for free. In first one and a half year and we've got maybe 10, 15 of them for free. And then we like two years ago we stopped to doing all operations with. Actually last year. Last year it was April last year. No, February last year we stopped operating with all our free franchisees. But the two years ago we started to sell our franchisees for money. And right now we have 25 sold franchisees across all United States. We have a licenses in Florida, we have a license H. VAC license in Texas, in California as well. So we have 25 locations in the United States. Some of the doing great, some of them doing not well. But it's just the beginning. It's just like two years story of our franchisee. And we'll see how it goes.

That's awesome.

And for this moment, just for this moment, all these small locations, they generate for this moment $4.5 million revenue. Yes, we did much more in the San Jose location because we're much more experienced. But the thing is the point where we right now, they can get this point in two, three, four years, not six years. Yeah, it's gonna be for them much easier. They have boost already. And that they will have to just do just like take the manual. Okay, I'm doing this. I'm doing this. I'm doing this. If I will have all these manuals six years ago, I will avoid a lot of mistakes. I've. We've been doing.

Yeah.

And wasting time like by trying to write the best solution handbooks, best practices, because everything is already written. And this is absolutely all Our handbooks written by blood or something like, or like just hitting to the head or like a punching to the butt. It stuff things and everything, it's already written. You don't have to figure it out just to read it and do it if you don't want to read it. We have a lot of videos. How to do the best things for the customers.

That's awesome.

And for the business itself, for yourself.

Well, it's a win win because your brand gets exposure to new markets.

Absolutely.

The technician doesn't have to start from scratch. You can use all of your amazing, all of your amazing systems and processes so he's not starting from scratch. And you both get rewarded handsomely for it. I mean, I think this is a no brainer. Anything you'd like to add Stan, to the franchising?

Nothing to add, actually. I would say some franchisee who is doing really successful right now. They are good listeners and they really read our instructions and they listen to it. Some franchises who maybe not doing as well as good ones. They came with this idea, it's just we are gonna put it in their heads but honestly they supposed to just read manuals and this is it.

Yeah, read manuals and implement immediately. Some of them very lazy and we have to just put punch the butts very hard and like come on guy, what the heck? Why are you so lazy? Do it. Just do it. But I have no money. Take a loan. Go ahead.

But honestly. Yeah, honestly. That's a good comparison you have. I mean if we would have these instructions or these manuals where we just started business, you'd guys be at like.

200 million or something.

Maybe.

Yeah.

Yeah. Hard to say but yeah, I think we would grow even faster.

Yeah, much faster.

Well, it's really interesting you say that because I'm thinking about the type of person who wants to start their own business. And I think there's the difference between someone who's willing to do the work and someone who just wants to have their own business.

They are absolutely different.

Yeah.

And I hate the people who, who've been technicians and want to. Oh come on. I want to be a business owner. I'm tired to be a business owner. They buy franchise and they are still technicians.

That's why we have classes with them and we have monthly meetings with them and we're trying to bring our vision and our point of view how to develop business, not trade.

Stop doing the work how I'm supposed to do the money. Send the guy where I'm taking the guy. Okay. I put like, the advertise. Like, I'm. We're looking for the guy in the Dallas, Texas, who gonna make a lot of money for this wonderful man. Brings a lot of guys working, growing money. And I said. He said, like, oh, it's working. I said, it's easy, guys. It's easy. This is a United States when it grows on trees. Yeah, absolutely.

We have a few minutes left, and I want to make sure I ask you guys this question. And I'm so happy. Like, we've covered the obstacles that you went over, how you were able to launch franchising and networking, and you just, like, kind of. It sounds like you just kept your head, like, focused on the goal, and you just kept pushing even when it seemed like things weren't working. And I really want to give you both tremendous credit for that, because not many people can do that. And I just want to take a moment and acknowledge it and thank you for sharing our story with me and with the listeners.

Not. Not. Not really everyone.

Not really everyone.

You have to lose your citizenship, come back to the United States. States and start over.

There you go. There you go. So in six years, just to recap, you have 25 franchises and are aiming to hit 40 million in 2023. What advice would you give other contractors who are looking to grow quickly?

I would say don't be afraid to delegate. That's a big point. Yeah. We were talking about it with Adam when we were on our way here about delegation, and I think that's a.

Huge.

Stopper or something like a fear in heads, in contractors head especially, because they're trying to do everything on their own. They're trying to fix things. They're trying to run calls, they're trying to receive calls. They're trying to do accounting, bookkeeping, and all this stuff. And it's. I know because it was in my head, and it's still sometimes in my head I'm like, oh, I can do it better. Come on, let me do it. Forget about it. You need to quit these thoughts. And as soon as you quit them and as soon as you will be able to delegate, you will be able to grow.

Yeah, yeah, 100%. I struggle with that too, by the way. Like, that is something that I. It's like, if. If I want it done right, I'll just do it myself. Like, no. It's such a toug. Toxic attitude to have.

It's just a human nature, maybe. Yeah, yeah.

All mine. All mine.

I can do it all.

If anyone. I can't believe I haven't mentioned it, so. But, you know, the podcast is obviously audio, but we're. We have a wonderful video on YouTube where everyone will get to see Adam's wonderful improvised movements. If you want to watch this interview on YouTube, Adam, anything you want to add? What advice would you give other contractors who want to grow the way you guys are?

Where we've been talking about the obstacles. Yeah, obstacles in the head. That's it.

Just come over those obstacles, learn how to get over them.

It's all in our hands, really.

Is there anything you guys wanted to talk about that you didn't get a chance to. We've got a few more minutes.

Hit subscribe button. Subscribe button.

Smash that subscribe button.

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We will link your YouTube channels to the show Notes version of this podcast so folks can go there if they want to see more of your stuff.

All right, thank you.

Anything else you would like to say, Stan, before we sign off?

I would just say thank you, Jakey, for inviting us.

Oh, thank you so much for coming and for being willing to come down to Los Angeles so we could use this amazing studio. Stan and Adam from Fuse Services, thank you guys so much for joining me today and being on Toolbox for the trades.