Growing a Family-Owned Business With a Marketing System | Podcast Ep. 131 | Toolbox for the Trades

Amber Gage, thank you so much for joining me today on Toolbox for the Trades. You are the founder of Sabre Marketing. You've got an incredible background in the trades. We're going to talk a lot about getting your business ready to sell today. You're a Texan. You're in Dallas, Texas, actually. I don't know if you're a born and bred Texan, are you?

I am. I'm a native.

Nice. Love it. We are going to kick off this conversation, but before we do, I am going to start this podcast very differently from from every other podcast I've ever done before. Now, longtime listeners of the show know that I love to ask Icebreakers at the end of the conversation, which people have said is weird. They told me that it's a weird thing and I shouldn't do it anymore. So I'm going to kick this off with an icebreaker just so the folks at home can get to know you a little bit. This is a question I'm really loving a lot. So I would love to know if you could automate any part of your life. We're talking personal, professional, social, whatever. If you could automate any part of your life, what would it be and why?

Okay, that is a fun ice breaking question, Jackie. I love that. I have to say that I think one of the greatest challenge challenges of being a woman in the trades, well, let's just say a working woman in general is just the balancing of home responsibilities and work responsibilities. And I am a baby from the 80s. I'm not going to say what year because that would incriminate me. But I grew up watching the Jetsons and so I love the idea of having a Rosie robot in my home and literally automating. Like, do you remember that scene where George is like getting out of bed and she has him on the conveyor belt and he goes in the shower and he gets shaved and then she just puts like this little food particle on his tongue and he's like, you burn the toast. Like, I want a Rosie in my house doing all the things. So I am not thinking about the vacuuming and the cooking and the cleaning. Can I get an amen? I just.

Yes, yes, yes, yes. 100%, many amens for me. I 100% agree with you, though. I've only asked this icebreaker once, and I believe it was with Jonathan Brewster from Water Treatment Systems. And my answer was very similar to yours. It was if I could just snap my fingers, Sabrina the teenage witch style and just like flip through outfits and getting my hair and makeup done, it would save me so much time. It also just be very cool because how cool would it be if I could just change my outfit right. With a snap of my fingers? Okay. In an effort to not lose all of my audience out there who does not care necessarily about the outfits that they put together. You are very put together. You look lovely today. Thank you again for joining me. Let's dive into the trades. So I would love to know, how did you get into the trades?

My daddy is a master plumber in the most southern description possible. I grew up in a plumbing family. Brown Friday is real. Brown Friday is the biggest and busiest day of the year for plumbers. If you don't know Brown Friday, you're not a residential plumber for sure. That means that it is the day after Thanksgiving. And so our Thanksgiving meals were. We were sitting down at the dinner table and. And back in the day, it was when our two way radios would go off and we knew somebody had to grab a water heater from the cage at the warehouse and we would literally look around the table and go, who's getting the water heater? Who's calling the customer back? So my entire life was spent in family business and in plumbing. And now my family owns and operates four different trades companies. They have a residential plumbing franchise. They have a business, a B2B plumbing, H vac electrical and pest control service. They have a plumbing subcontracting business, which was daddy's first business in 1983. And they have a standalone pest control company that does residential and commercial sanitation and pest remediation. So my entire childhood was spent in the trades. And let me tell you, there's nothing I haven't smelled, heard, or seen from the back of my dad's backhoe.

I love that. So my dad's in the trades as well, but he's a carpenter by trade. When I first started service titan, I was the social media manager here. And I was like, what the heck am I going to post on Facebook that's going to get all of these contractors interested? And one of the first things I learned about was Brown Friday and I was like, ew. Anyway, that's a side note. I have to ask. Okay. I love that you have this family background. I have not heard before of many plumbing and pest control businesses that are together. And I love how you have electrical in there. Can you say more about why your family branched out from plumbing to pest control?

Absolutely. So, being from Texas, we are one of the most highly regulated states in terms of the licensing laws. In the United States. So to become a master plumber, a responsible master plumber in the state of Texas, and it takes nine years. So here's what this means. Mamas, your kid can go to medical school or he can become a master plumber. Now, what do you think most people in Texas are sending their kids to do? It's not plumbing. So we needed to figure out a way to passionately continue serving the homeowners and the business owners in the state of Texas in a trade that did not have as high regulated licensing laws because the labor shortages in the trades is a real problem. And understanding that we were already in plumbing, H VAC and electrical, what was the most logical licensing and service business we could get into that was still complementary. And it was pest control at the time. So to get an applicator license, I'm not going to quote how long it takes, but it's significantly less than nine years as it is in plumbing.

Got it. And you guys just were like, we hate pests. Like, it was between was it or was it just like the most accessible one? Because I'm thinking also maybe H Vac. I know you have electrical in there, too. Was it just that it was the most accessible?

It was. And it was also that we already had H Vac at the time. And who likes bugs in their home? I mean, ew. One of the reasons that my mother started Benjamin Franklin Plumbing was that she felt like the trades needed a woman's touch. And most of the time in the residential services sector, it's a woman making the decision about who to use. So mom and I had the most fun coming up with a brand name. We based it off of my dad, who is a tall, lanky cowboy, and he always wore a Stetson. And so our main character for Buckaroo pest protection is Bucky. And so he has a stick horse and he comes riding in, and the back of our bright orange trucks have a bug and behind a cage. And so we wanted to have a fun, real transparent brand that said, we will lasso your critters. And so that's what we developed. We wanted to have a woman's touch. We wanted to have a comprehensive pest control and radication service. Because growing up, the catchphrase of our family was, and everyone that grew up in plumbing knows this poster. You're going to get this visual when I say this phrase. The plumber protects the health of the nation. I know you have this poster in your offices, right? And the other element of protecting the health in the home is eradicating. Bugs, rats, and other disease carrying rodents. And it is absolutely an antiquated practice to just spray baseboards and go home. We wanted a safe way to provide protection for pets, elderly, children without bringing in tons of chemicals. And so that's what Buckaroo Pest protection was all about.

Very, very cool. I'm so happy I asked that question. You also dropped a. A big nugget there. When my mom started Ben Franklin plum Plumbing, I have. We've heard about Ben Franklin a lot on the show because it's giant franchise now, obviously. So can you just give me a little bit of background on your mom and how she played the role with that brand?

Yeah. Yeah. So my mom is a powerhouse. She fell in love with the plumber. She came from the oil industry, and a plumber just swept her off her feet. So that's how this businesswoman ended up in the trades. And so when I finished high school, she was done. She thought, okay, I'm gonna go run and play. I've just finished raising my youngest child. And my dad said to her, you have three business degrees. I think you need to start a business, otherwise you're gonna be bored. And, boy, was he right. So together they partnered with the original venture capitalists out of Sarasota, Florida, in 1999. And there was a sweat equity. And my parents literally flew around the country, opening and Counseling the First 30 Benjamin Franklin Plumbing franchisees. So their official franchise number is number two. And we laugh about that because the guy in Austin beat us. But our attorney took longer to review the contract. So what are you gonna do? And so, yeah, so they. They were the first Benjamin Franklin franchisee in the nation.

That's amazing. That's such a cool background and definitely speaks to why you yourself are such a powerhouse, which we'll talk a little bit more about throughout this episode. But you just did a wonderful job at alluding to the main reason I want to talk to you.

Right.

Which is you have this incredible experience with family business and private equity. You just threw it in there. Your parents were partnering with private equity back in the late 90s, which, you know, now I'm talking about private equity all the time on this podcast, but you've been in it, so I would love if you could tell me a bit about the differences you've noticed between family business and private equity.

Oh, we do not have enough time, Jackie, man. Night and day between family business and private equity. I have a blessed background in that I was able to grow up in family business and then privileged to be empowered to start my own lead generation company for the trades back in 2013 and then sell that company to private equity in 2018 and then spend time in the private equity sector myself. And I will tell you that that was a culture shock. In family business, we solve problems that are usually associated with personality, family dynamics, operational in nature. In private equity, it doesn't matter who you are related to, it doesn't matter what your background is. What matters is how much you can get out of the P and L, how much profit margin you can improve upon month over month, quarter by quarter. It is a purely objective metrics given, metrics driven KPI world. And so there's a huge difference in the way the businesses are run versus a family business. And I will tell you that it was a big culture shock for this Texas galaxy, I'm sure.

Yeah. And I know that probably countless people who are listening right now also had that culture shock because we have, I've had a bunch of people come on and say, you know, we've partnered with private equity. It's been a wonderful partnership. To be very honest with you. I get a little suspicious of that because I'm like everyone, you're telling me everyone out here is having the best experience ever with private equity. I mean, yes, you did in theory just get a lump sum of cash. So that would make me pretty happy too. But there definitely has to be some, some learning curves that are thrown at you if you're used to doing something a certain way and then private equity comes in just kind of very button up and this is how we're doing it and this is what we expect. I can just imagine that can be kind of like just very scary, especially for maybe a family business who's been doing things a certain way for, you know, 10, 20 years and now they're being expected to do something else. Also having a boss for the first time when in theory a lot of these people were their own boss for so long, Right?

Yes, absolutely. It's so true, Jackie. With private equity, it's all about finding the right partner. There are many private equity firms in the US and there are so many that are recognizing the great opportunity of coming into the trades and consolidating. I'm a huge fan of private equity. I believe that there is a place for both private equity backed businesses and family backed businesses. There's more than enough work to go around. We know that. But I would say to those who are considering a private equity play, partnering with someone that's going to bring you not just one option as a private equity partner, but many you hold the cards before you sell your company. You can choose who to partner with. And finding a private equity partner who will support your goals, align with your vision operationally, both now and in the future, is of paramount importance. I partner with an amazing brokerage that does nothing but take businesses to market. And that brokerage firm is committed in a planning process, a preparation process. They sign a five year commitment with my clients to say, we will invest in you for no more than five years to make sure that you are positioned well to sell. And then we will bring buying partners to you so that at the end of the day you have two choices. One is do you really want to sell? And the other is who should I sell to? I think we make the mistake in family business to assume that our options are limited. And no, you've worked your whole life. Your options are absolutely not limited.

I love that. So folks who are listening right now may be a little confused. I thought Jackie said that this, that Amber was the founder of Sabre Marketing. Why are we talking about private equity? And you do you have. So why don't you tell the folks listening a little bit about what your day to day looks like and the role you fill for your various clients.

Absolutely. So Sabre Marketing Group was reborn and after I sold my first lead generation company in 2018, I came back into family business because I have a son to raise and I wanted to be very involved in his life. And having grown up in an entrepreneurial environment, I recognize the beautiful partnership that can exist in both sectors. And so Sabre Marketing is uniquely positioned in a couple of different ways. One, we do serve our enterprise level contracting clients who are looking to sell. We help to systemize the businesses and position it so that it is run in a way that is palatable and comfortable to prepare for a private equity liquidity event. That means putting a big focus on systemization processes and people. The other side of the coin though is serving our contractors who want to maintain their privately held status. And what we do then is we basically pour the gasoline on what is already a successful fire. We help to streamline marketing, we help to coach existing marketing teams. We offer a pre vetted partnership of vendors so that our clients are not having to go out and interview vendor partner after vendor partner. I'm sure that many of the people listening to this podcast have been through the pure hell that is looking for a website developer or trying to find someone that's not going to charge them 30% in their pay per click budget. I have been around the contracting world long enough to know what matters to contractors and how to protect their profit margins. And so my team and I have a pool of vendor partners that we bring to the table to make life easier, demystify marketing and provide those marketing scalable systems so that the business owner can make money while they sleep. They're not having to make these hard decisions about who I should trust with my hard earned dollars. So that's what Sabre is all about. We cut confusion in marketing, we deliver results, we help businesses scale.

Yeah, that's such a good point you made about vendors and demystifying the process. I mean I, I've. This has come. We have had a lot of marketing partners on this show and service titan, particularly partners with a bunch of wonderful marketers, yourself included. Because as a lot of business to go around, there's a lot of clients out there. And just back to your other point. One big part when it comes to partnering with your business, growing your business is finding the person that fits the right fits your plan, fits the way you want to work. Your culture is the right partner. Right. But I just love that Pre vetted partnership, 30% of pay per click budget. Really like people want their. That's a lot.

It is a lot.

And what. Sorry, go ahead.

No, it's just that especially when you don't have clear metrics in place to see whether or not that is actually driving revenue for your business. One of the biggest problems we see when we come into a scenario is that our contractors have not been granted ownership of their data or clear metrics to see what's working. That's what I love about servicetitan. You guys empower your contractors to see what's working. You, you have campaigns, you have reputation management. These tools that are at your fingertips, if we will just put them into play, save so much time and energy and money too.

Yeah. And actually let's loop that back into this idea of helping contractors sell their business if that's what they choose to do. Knowing your data is such a critical part of that because that's the only way that you're going to know your worth. So tell me a bit I would love to know. Like when you're working with a client who's like I think I might want to sell their, sell our business, what are some steps you take them through? Tell me about what that process looks like. You mentioned the brokerage firm already, but can we go a little bit deeper?

Absolutely. So it's really a four part process that we take people through. The first process is that gap analysis. We dive in and say what marketing systems are in place, what is the opportunity for more growth in this market and what people are in place to carry the torch forward. We have those are the three crucial elements that every private equity partner looks for. People, processes and ebitda. So once we complete phase one of that evaluation, then we go to phase two, which is the tools implementation. What is missing, what is it that we need to put into the mix to solve the problems that we've identified? And that's where our vendor partnerships come into play. That's where our dashboard boards come into play. That's where our partners, like service Titan, come into play. We encourage our contractors to put these systems in place so that you can, you can start taking off hats. Because what happens in family business, Jackie, is everyone wears multiple hats. You got the beret, the hard hat and the cowboy hat and they're all different functions and you're expected to take them off and on at any moment. Well, you have to have systems to run a business that's scaling. And so that's what we help our partners to do is to say, can we put a system in place to run the business while you sleep? And then the third element of that is the tracking. So now that we have systems in place, now that we've identified the problems, how are we actually going to know that this is successful? We have to make sure that what we've put into place is trackable and transparent enough so that we can now pull the levers that we have built. Because that's how you control the business, is to know when do you pull back on SEO? When you put fuel on ppc, Maybe you run both in tandem, but unless you have the collaborative data to know, you can't make these real time decisions. So it is a four part process that we take our contractors through, but they really fall into those three major buckets. People, gap analysis. Yes. Yeah. People, processes, ebitda.

There you go. So what are some critical things that you think contractors should keep in mind as they're getting ready to potentially partner with private equity? What are some questions you would ask if someone, if you met someone at a cocktail party and they're like, oh yeah, I run this business, we got a great ebitda. We're think we're looking at some private equity partners. What are some things you would say based on your experience?

I would say, what is it that you want to accomplish? Do you want to maintain a role in your business or are you ready to Exit that's a critical piece because that will define the level of involvement of a private equity partner. Do you want to sell your entire business or are you looking for a partial sale? Many people don't know that you can sell partial and retain some equity. So that's another element. And the third thing I would encourage of a family owned business specifically is don't wait until a fire sale is necessary. Commit to a process now so that you and your family are in step together, laying the foundation so that you exit merrily is the word that comes to mind. You're never going to get the payment that you want by waiting until the last minute to put a plan in place. A fire sale is a last resort. A family that plans together reaps the benefits. And it's okay to have the conversations as a family to say these conversations are business conversations, these conversations are family conversations. Sometimes we try to say that they're all intermingled, but it's absolutely okay to be a part of the family and not be part of the business. We just need to have these conversations ahead of time so that we are mapping out a plan so that there is a win win scenario and clarity involved for everyone.

Yeah, I really like that a lot. And I also love the differentiation between this is a family conversation, this is a business conversation and making those. I think those lines can get really easily blurred, especially when a family business finds success, gets their footing and really takes off like a rocket ship. Sometimes I talk to contractors on here and I'm like, oh my goodness. Like I can't imagine, like just like trying to have like an on it, like a fun conversation. It's like, oh, did you ever do that? I'm like, oh no. Why? I'm like having a Barbie. We're at like a barbecue. Like, leave me alone. I don't want to deal with that. So I think that's really important. I would love to know, I want to talk about one more thing before we close out, but I would love to know, does all of your insight come from your personal experience of selling your, your lead generation business in 2018 and learning some hard mistakes?

There's a lot of insight that comes from that. Absolutely. But I also have a personal goal to never be the smartest person in the room. So I surround myself with people that I can trust that will always be smarter than me. My husband is one of those people. He is the executive president of the Lawton Group and he surrounds himself with brilliant leadership team. They have leaders at our family's businesses. That have been in our business for over 20 years, and I'm not in the family business. So I can honestly say that it is a blessing to surround yourself with people that are smarter than you, that have been there and done that, that will also maintain that sense of transparency to call you when you're going off course. And so, yes, a lot of my experience was from my own walk and journey in my family business, but a lot of my experience and insights comes from the vendor partners that I work with every day. I will not recommend a vendor partner to one of my clients that isn't someone that I would personally do business with. And so when I bring my brokerage partner to the table and I say, this is your account manager. You can trust her. It's because I've seen her work before, and I know that she's going to advocate for my clients as if they were mine. So, yeah, a lot of it is just learning as you go and trusting out with a network of people who are smarter than you.

That's great. I've spoken to the Lawton Group before. I've had Shane Yeager on the podcast. I don't know if you know Shane.

Yeah, I've known Shane since I was 15. Absolutely. He knows all the dirt. Don't ask him for the stories. He knows it.

Don't ask him. I won't ask him. I won't ask him. All right, so I want to close out with. You know, when we first spoke, you mentioned that you were big into system systemization. Work harder, not smarter. So tell me how that philosophy has helped you and your clients, especially those clients who are on service titan.

Oh, my goodness. Every time a client tells me they're on service titan, I let out a little eek of joy because it just makes our little lives so much easier. So, yes, if anyone is not on service titan, get on service Titan. You need it in your life, I promise. Okay. Number one, that's my Service Titan plug. So for systems, you can't do it all. Systemization is just essential in every part of your business. And marketing is not a silver bullet. So many times people treat marketing as if it is a silver bullet. But the truth of the matter is, Jackie, marketing is a system just like anything else. So when you're talking about marketing and systems, you need a system for tracking your spend, you need a system for tracking your return on investment, and you need a system for tracking your vendors. Anytime a vendor comes to you and says, oh, I promise you we're going to give you X, Y, And Z, how many times have people been burned because they didn't back up what they said? That's probably the worst part of my job is working with clients who have been burned by other marketers. And I don't want that for anyone. So your systems in marketing are what guides the growth. It isn't throw it up against the wall and see if it sticks. It's measure change and repeat. Consistency is key. You always want to test something for no less than 90 days. Give it a chance. Try and avoid those knee jerk reactions. And hey, if you need some help with systems, I'll just plug my book here. I have written a book called Potty why Some Marketing is Great and the Rest of It Should Just be Flushed. And it is nothing but a straightforward guide of marketing tips for the trades. So go to pottytalkbook.com and you can see my tips on how to systemize your marketing.

I love that. I mean, I have to say, bravo. You and I are in the same generation, I believe, because I also grew up with, with the Jetsons. And man, you got a whole. You got a whole book. You got a whole book. You got a whole family story. You branded. I wonder what I could have done with my dad's carpentry. My dad owned a franchise in the 90s called furniture medic in, in New York. And so I wonder if I could have been. There's like, there's a baby photo of me with like mini like carpenter overalls. I could have branded that, but I, I don't know. Maybe there's still time. Maybe there's still time. Amber, you still can.

Jackie, I have. I want to see this photo. You could go. You go a long way with that. Absolutely.

I could have to find it, but I believe I have it this in my house. If not, I'll have to ask my mom. Amber, this was such a great conversation. I, as always, like whenever I talk to folks who've been doing this a long time who have really varied experience like you, I always am able to apply it to my own life. I hope our listeners were as well. Is there anything you wish that we had talked about that we didn't talk about?

I would just say that when you're dealing with marketing, the only thing that I want to make sure people understand is that an agency needs to be a collaborative partner and that even if you have an agency, sometimes it is still necessary to have an ongoing marketing advocate. And that's really what Sabre strives to do. We want to stand in the gap to help people fill in those areas of vulnerability that happen way too often in the trade. So I just want to encourage people to take a hard look at their partnerships and make sure that your data is clear, your systems are intact and if you need any help, give us a call.

Awesome. Well Amber thank you so much. This was a wonderful conversation. Great start to my day. I know your day is about two hours ahead of mine so I hope your day continues to be great. Folks can find potty talk. I'll link to all of your stuff in our show notes and on our website. But thank you so much for contributing to Toolbox for the Trades. I hope to meet you in person someday.

I would love to buy you a drink Jackie and thank you so much for the honor of having me on your amazing podcast. I love listening to your Service Titan podcast and I love everything Service Titan does for the trades. So God bless.