Will Dexter and Trevor Piondexter are Entrepreneurs and Partners in Dexter Welding in Half Moon Bay California | Ep.48 – Special Edition Half Moon Bay Business Podcast
Summary
Will and Trevor met in college and always wanted to build a welding business together. Through some long conversations on Trevor’s way home from working for someone else, they built a plan.
Listen in to how they planned their business and made it happen and created Dexter Welding.
They talk about how they use their business plan to consistently grow their business and drop tons of HPT’s that can help you with your business.
It’s a great story of friendship, a business partnership and how leverages each others strengths can build a successful business.
Find Will and Trevor at Dexter Welding Homepage or on
Instagram at @DexterWelding
More Information on Build a BusinessSuccess Secrets
- Build a Business Homepage
- How to Write a Business Plan in 13 easy to build slides
- How to be More Productive
- 7 Quotes to Inspire Success in Your Life and in Business
- How I Build an Online Business of my Dreams
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Hello,
Brandon:
friends. Welcome to another episode of Build a business success Secrets. I am your host, Brandon. See, White. And today we continue our local Half Moon Bay, Calif. Business Siri’s with Will and Trevor from Dexter Welding. Now, you wouldn’t think that welding could be exciting or even high tech, but as you’ll learn in this interview, it actually is.
Brandon:
And these two guys are just cool, and you can tell that they have a really, incredibly positive partnership and are growing a business in what you might not think is an exciting field in general. But it is, and you’re gonna love this all the H P. T. S. That air dropped and I didn’t even pay these guys to talk about a business plan. But you’re gonna hear how they used their business plan to grow their business on a quarterly basis and even how they run their shutdown program at the end of the year, in addition to a whole bunch of other cool stuff that they share on how they got started and how they got their equipment for free. And actually, the other really cool thing is they are the skills use a national welding champs.
Brandon:
I’m not gonna even waste another second. Let’s get to it. With Will and Trevor from Dexter Welding in Half Moon Bay, Calif.
Brandon:
Eso We’ve got Will and Trevor here today from Dexter welding. And like I was saying, I actually didn’t know that we had a welding company here in Half Moon Bay.
Brandon:
But I’m excited to find that out. And I hear all these good things.
Brandon:
And what I understand is you have a very interesting story of how you guys got started together, going all the way back to high school. Is that right?
Brandon:
Yeah. We were in college together. We met in college. We went through the welding program through quest to college. We we’re in the same class. We realized that we had similar, you know, passions and everything. And, uh, went through college.
Trevor:
Where’s that? Where’s the college On Santos Best.
Brandon:
Well oh, right on.
Trevor:
What’s the college there.
Brandon:
So well are and Trevor, you both from Half Moon Bay originally?
Trevor:
No, I’m actually from Ventura, down south, just south of Santa Barbara.
Brandon:
Eso seamless obisbo. We went to school is kind of the middle point.
Will:
Yeah, exactly. So you adjusting Thio How long have you been up here in Northern California? Because from a guy whose wife is from L. A. I can appreciate Southern California, but we have a different vibe up here, right?
Brandon:
Yeah. Boli, uh, growing up Coast side. It’s very similar, but I lived in Petaluma for a year before going down the same list this post. So I got a feel for the for the North Coast and really fell in love with that longer green periods and, yeah, better vibe.
Will:
Better vibe. Well, that’s good to hear. It’s different vibe and and it’s not hot. I think I think living in Half Moon Bay makes you soft. I don’t know about you guys, but, like, I go to L. A. And it’s 75 degrees and I’m like, I’m out of here, man. This is just hot, right?
Brandon:
Yeah. Hard, hard to beat our weather. It’s either it stays out. The constant temperature kind of. We were actually both just on vacation where it was called way colder than we’re used to, at least here. But like you say anything over 75 80 degrees, they want to run back towards the fog.
Trevor:
Yeah, exactly. We want everybody to think there’s a lot of fog here, but will, you are from happening day.
Brandon:
Yeah. Born and raised, the Half Moon bay were actually south of town. That’s where our shop is is well on our family ranch. And, uh, I am the sixth generation. I believe that that’s been here along the coast.
Trevor:
Uh, yeah, there’s there’s always the the native discussion, right? Like I mean, I married into California family, so I somehow get it, but will never be quote unquote local. But whereas local is weaken, bet we’ve been here for eight or nine years. But you six generations and you’re just your address is Half Moon Bay. You’re just south just south of HLA Beatus. Cut off, I think.
Brandon:
Right. Yeah, we’re We are kind of on the board of the Half Moon Bay Actual city zone, but yeah, pretty much between San Gregorio and Half Moon Bay, the lower side of Half Moon Bay.
Trevor:
And you have your shop there?
Brandon:
Yeah. We’re lucky enough to have our shop here at my grandparent’s house. And eso we work out of here for the most part in the shop doing projects and then we’ll take a project out like we build a handrail in, in in the shop. We’ll, we’ll build it in the shop, go install it, and then we also do mobile stuff is well, but for the most part we stay in the shop just because all the tools air there. We know what we have. You know, it’s kind of easier just to do something there rather than going and building at somebody else’s location.
Trevor:
But for the most part of shop stuff, and do people visit you there?
Trevor:
Not really.
Brandon:
That’s kind of the one thing that we don’t have. We don’t really have like a storefront. It’s kind of by appointment, like people drop trailer for some project off to us and they’ll they’ll meet us into the shop then. But we kind of just have the shop as our location and people come in when they bring their projects and everything. So we don’t really get a walk in per se, but we get we’ll call or have somebody call us and bring their project to us.
Trevor:
Now what is your family done on that ranch? For six generations besides welding farming, we raise hey for our cattle that we have on the ranch and back in the day, my grandpa says you could actually make a living off your ranch.
Brandon:
So they had a full dairy. They had sheep, cows, dairy cows and all that kind of stuff. But that was hundreds of years ago.
Trevor:
Almost now. But we still raise cattle and raise hey for the cows mostly. But we just raised beef cattle on you. Take it to the sale. And that’s kind of how we do our house.
Trevor:
Do you both live on the ranch right by your Yeah, Yeah, we’re right right on the ranch.
Brandon:
So the community is close.
Trevor:
That’s gets good for you guys. Now I want to go back to the college thing, because my understanding is is that you both were on a team and are like world champion, I think. What is that, you national welding skills? Yusa National Welding champs. Is that right?
Brandon:
That is correct.
Will:
So how did that how did that? That was really the It sounds like you went to college together and got trained and welding. But that’s really where you bonded in the sense of coming up with something together.
Brandon:
totally.
Brandon:
Yeah, that was it for sure. I’ll let Trevor talk on that a little bit.
Trevor:
It’s kind of thio back a little further. We both started welding where you know, 12, 13 years old and picked it up and ran with it. And then you get toe college level and you you start to learn what you don’t know. I mean, we walked into those first class with a little bit of background. I think it was probably 22 years of theory of practical learning experience in the classroom. And then we started getting into the upper Division classes where we were at building projects together in small teams, fabricating. And, uh, we got really good at it. We started toe, see how we work together. Then we had another guy with us, Joey, that we went progress through school together. And the opportunity came up Thio to compete, and we dove headfirst into it, and the teacher would take us out of the classroom and have us work on projects.
Will:
All the rest of the class was learning, and we built a good relationship with him, namely, competed on the, you know, the regional level.
Will:
The state level the national level.
Will:
It’s a product these projects are. They have a time constraint to him. They have a materials constraint, and then the project itself. It’s changed since we left, but it was They give you a certain amount of materials.
Will:
They tell you how the time, what it is. You have to design a project that uses a ZMA. Much of the material is possible and build it within a certain time.
Trevor:
And then you’re graded on the quality of different types of wealth. Different types of cutting presentation, your leadership skill set. You take written test, you do interviews. I think that was probably the reason part of the reason why we’re in business together. Remember we’re in the in an interview at the national level and they were asking us, Where do you see yourself in a few years?
Will:
And, uh, he said, Oh, I have a job lined up with an architecture firm because like, oh, I got a job lined up with a pipeline company, we’ll see.
Will:
You know what?
Trevor:
If I could have anything, I’d have the three of us going the work or in the business together, and started welding shut up.
Will:
So in a I think it evolved from there. Yes, so we got Trover and I who going to move up here and work with us, which we’ve talked about it before. But he’s got a pretty good job down in this this well, But the eso Yeah, the skills.
Trevor:
Yusa was a huge thing for us. Toe, Like Trevor said, figure out how we work together and what strengths and weaknesses each of us have. And that’s why I think we worked so well together. Trevor’s really get with the computer stuff.
Trevor:
I’m not so great at it, but I couldn’t even get my camera on. But so we definitely have our strengths and weaknesses. And then I think that what they’re, that’s what makes us work so well together. And it kind of helps us along with everyday stuff in projects. And then it’s also great, have two points of views going into a project. Trevor designed it and has had one way, and then I kind of design it in my head another way, and then we can kind of meat in the middle or pick what works best for each of the designs and kind of get a middle ground where everything works out. Usually it works out pretty good.
Trevor:
So I want to go back on the projects. It’s timed and they tell you different types of wells. Are you making a Like what?
Brandon:
What do you What is it you make a I don’t know. Iraq you make. I mean, that’s terrible example, but no.
Brandon:
Yeah, that one of the one of the projects was like a shelving unit, actually, Like Trevor said, you you take the materials they give you. You you design it to make the most of the materials because you actually get docked points on your strap or your leftover pieces that you have.
Trevor:
So they would just tell you what to make. Like there was a shelving unit like a job box. Kind of like a big toolbox all out of skill. And then you design it. You you figure out the best way toe use the materials, and then we would build probably two or three before we actually went to the competition. So we kind of knew, You know, what we had to do quickly or what took the longest.
Trevor:
So we can kind of start so that part of it, it kind of is like running a business doing that competition. You have to figure out exactly how you’re going to do it and pre plan everything. And so skills you say that program helped us out. Probably a bunch, and we didn’t even realize it. But now that we look back, weaken be like Oh, man, that was huge toe learn.
Trevor:
And little did we know that we were actually learning it at the time. So I think that definitely helped out. And then Trevor was because you get also created are judged on your plans that you make ableto make all the plans on auto cad.
Trevor:
And we kind of went off of those.
Trevor:
And we did pretty good at that in the not too Cuesta college.
Trevor:
We have amazing Professor. That e mean he was brilliant, and he just taught us so much. And through that project process, we really excel this fabricators underneath them.
Will:
So you just you’re really good at welding, which is a craft in an art, right? And then there’s this whole creativity that says, Oh, here’s the vision. I’m gonna make X. I’m gonna make a shelf well, making a shelf from scratch out of metal is difficulties. There’s all sorts of things involved.
Brandon:
So how do you go from? And you’ve touched on this a little bit, will. But I’m interested to sort of unpack it a little bit more. Is is that you’re both very good at the craft, your artistic.
Brandon:
But then you actually have to run a business to make money and pay your mortgage. So, yeah, how does that like leap work?
Brandon:
So well, that’s generally like, if a custom, I guess we’ll go back to the shelf. They want the shelf that you know, has four shelves on It has to look a certain way or whatever. And this is their country what they want in their time frame. So one thing we look at is time. Sometimes we have a budget from the customer. Sometimes we don’t in which we then have toe propose and kind of add up our material cost out of all of our labor. So we start with that, and then the design process usually takes us depending on what it is up to a day Teoh a wound on what it is, and, uh, then Of course you have to run it by the customer and just a number of things that starts adding and adding onto the project.
Trevor:
But, uh, that’s what’s funny.
Trevor:
We kind of found out doing this for business. And you said making a profit or trying to make money on this stuff is the welding is probably the smallest percentage of what we actually do in a day. Ah, lot of it is talking to the customers are designing something. There’s days where we do well the lot 16 hour days or whatever, sometimes, but a lot of it is the background, the business side of the welding, because the welding is the easiest part. But it’s getting the business side of it, too.
Trevor:
Work with the project and that once you find that balance, which were getting pretty decent app, that’s the main thing, because there’s a lot of paperwork.
Trevor:
You have a train station at your house.
Brandon:
Oh gosh, no, that’s client clients coming through full speed so that no one and I didn’t get it.
Will:
I hear something in the background.
Brandon:
Is their music on in the background?
Will:
No, I can try to shut the door, though my just, uh but I am interested also in that you craft the project and you’ve got to make some margin.
Brandon:
Do you have an hourly rate for your labor and things that you look at?
Trevor:
Yeah, totally.
Brandon:
So, I mean, it’s an all encompassing deal. We have standard rates for stand in cutting drilling practices that, yeah, it’s a standard rate that we use in house or we’re doing if we’re doing field where mobile work, it varies depending on what What kinds of tools are being used.
Will:
Okay, so you have you have a menu that you choose from based on the labor and the equipment and everything that you’re doing now as a as an entire business, Do you say, Okay, we’re going thio need to build x amount of hours this month, regardless of what it is.
Trevor:
Or do you say we need to make 10 tons of metal?
Will:
Like what metrics do you use toe to figure out your business so that you know, you both make enough and I think you know whoever else I know you, my adroll ing or somebody else, and pay their electricity and things like that.
Brandon:
I think toe to rewind to the basis of businesses.
Brandon:
We have a business plan and, you know, we built this whole thing based on a plan. And so we we have, you know, 135 year goals and and so you have a set set amount of work that we want to complete by the end of the year and based on our profit margins, that will get us to where we need to be.
Will:
So we kind of check in quarterly, see where we’re at plus minus adjust, You know, with cove it it slowed us down there for a minute.
Will:
Then summer kicked. And you have a lot of homeowners wanting to do custom work to their homes. They’ve been sitting there looking at it, and it’s like why we went through this little low and then a flurry of this, you know, handrail and custom homeowners type work.
Will:
So where did you learn to build a business plan? Entrepreneurship in class?
Brandon:
The working through that program, you take electives, and I started ah, hog business and a livestock calling business before this. And so it kind of was like, Hey, these are the things that are critical to success is that business plan, I think, and you Do you credit that the where you are today with having that business plan, and I assume you built financials?
Will:
It sounds like Trevor with a guy. Maybe who builds them out. In that sense, do you credit that Teoh be and where you are?
Brandon:
I think it’s a lot of variables, but I think that that helps keep us focused and setting those goals and then reaching those goals and, you know, and game planning for growth and our position of capital.
Will:
I think that all comes into play. But it’s mainly that focus, right. You could do it off the hip, but it’s not as the clear and precise and maybe not achieved this path.
Will:
Do you set aside a day, a quarter when you say, Hey, Will and I are going to sit down, have lunch and look at the numbers and and review the plan?
Will:
Yeah, I kind of just kind of every week we’ll take a look at projects coming up.
Brandon:
We’ll look at you know, our invoices that are out, or what’s coming up the next month, say or the next week. So that’s kind of, you know, like over morning coffee or something. We get to the the shop for that and talking over a little bit and then, uh, go from there.
Trevor:
But yeah, like back to the business plan. Trevor and I both made one separate from each other, and then So we came in one day after after we built the plan and we looked at like I said kind of the both of our views from our designs and everything, but looked at the plans and we were pretty close on, say the numbers or where we wanted to see us at the end of the year, and that was the beginning of the year. We did our first one, but like we said, of course, that covert came in and kind of threw a wrench in our plans and not necessarily stopped us. But it’s definitely we’re working harder to meet our goals now just to try to meet them by the end of the year, which I think we could do if we keep it up and keep working hard, because that’s what it comes down to is just getting the work done, getting it done as fast as we possibly can, kind of, but also doing it as good as we can.
Trevor:
So many years. Have you been in business?
Brandon:
Ice? Well, I started a little bit before Trevor jumped on. I was doing it for roughly a year. And then since Trevor’s been here, we’ve been almost two years. Yeah, almost almost two years now. So kind of three years total. I got a jump start and then it was kind of funny, like we would hang out on the weekends and stuff, just like Trevor. I really think we could do this. And so me and Trevor would start talking and we started implementing both of our ideas before Trevor quit his last job and started with us. So we kind of had it running. But it was just getting both of us toe work full on at it, which set us, you know, on the next level and got us really started.
Trevor:
So that part was really cool, and and now it’s just like instead of just getting everything done and trying to get paperwork done and then actually getting the jobs completed.
Trevor:
But what do you think was it that that that that you said will to Trevor that, like, I was like, Okay, Trevor, Or maybe Trevor, This is from you, like, Okay, I believe, right, cause there’s a leap of faith, you know, that.
Brandon:
You’re basically going into I’m gonna eat what?
Brandon:
I kill revenue.
Brandon:
I could kind of maybe death.
Brandon:
But when I started, I was kind of doing more repair stuff, smaller stuff, ready to get a little bit more people coming to me for for work. And then eventually Trevor through his work, got us a a job or told him about Dexter welding. And then I think maybe that was kind of the turning point when we realized that we can get bigger customers, you know, bigger jobs and and do it for ourselves and kind of instead of somebody else, I think that might have had one. Might have been one of the reasons. Yeah, but yes, I came from a corporation, a large pipeline corporation in the Bay area.
Trevor:
And, uh, you know, you start commuting an hour and a half to and from work, and you see a business model.
Will:
It’s beautiful.
Trevor:
And and how much work there is in the Bay Area and uh, I mean, Willis, we would sit on the phone, I’d be on on my commute home, and we talked for an hour regularly, like, three or four times a week and just talk about business. And I think the idea it was there, and it was Yeah, let’s let’s try to put some energy in that direction and maybe this will work out. And personally, I need to put finances a way to make sure that I could float myself through a startup and s So that was kind of a time period where I was like, Hey, we knew we wanna do this And I was still kind of The transition is isn’t something that just happens overnight when you’re doing a start up. And then, yeah, I think it was just the potential that we have in the in this area in this industry. I mean, they I mean, statistically, They say in the next 10 years, there’s gonna be a demand for 200,000 welders nationwide that we’re not gonna meet. And that that’s amazing, right? So So you’re in this this market in the Bay Area, where you see a lot of people retiring selling their fabrication shops because the value of the land is going up and I e. I mean, there’s always gonna be other fabrication shops, but it’s narrowing, and we’re really good at what we dio. I think that the stars kind of aligned it was time to make it happen.
Will:
So I think one thing that that I find with entrepreneurs is they always think that there’s this magic like, Oh, you started the company, it takes off and then they you know, you see the success. But I think one of the things Trevor, that it was really thoughtful.
Brandon:
Obviously from a planning perspective is, is that you had a goal to get started at some point.
Brandon:
But one of the things you said I think is vital is is that you actually sock some money away so that when it didn’t go the way that you thought you could pay your bills, right?
Brandon:
Correct.
Brandon:
And did you have a number in mind? Did you say I need 12 months Runway, 14 months, runway, two years, runway, one year, 12 months?
Brandon:
Yeah, that was the goal.
Will:
Yeah, I think that I think you think that that that’s ah I don’t know. I go back and forth myself. I think having 1 to 2 years is good because nothing will ever go is good as you think it is. But some of these entrepreneurs who believe that they have three months off money left like that I probably not gonna work.
Brandon:
Right? Correct. Yeah. I mean, you you hear the numbers like, 0 90% of startups fail in the 1st 10 years, right? Like that’s a That’s a scary number. But you also don’t hear the number of people that keep trying And, you know, you keep putting forward that they do tend to work out. And I think that we’re in a unique position, right? Well, Wells family has been generous enough to let me live here while we’re getting started up. And I mean, the cost of living in the Bay Area is high. So very unique position to say, Hey, we have lower overhead and we’re going into this. It’s a little it’s safety buffer. Right? And it made more sense than hey, we have ah, $4000 shop bill every month. And, you know, we’re no tools. We went into this with we both had tools coming into this that, you know, that helps big time. Like you’re working all the money over for capital and really putting or did a lot of cash every month.
Will:
Yeah, I was gonna ask.
Will:
How much do you think it e mean in effect. Although you sell a product, you really are service the way that you you mark up your materials, I assume at some rate, and then but But you’re really making most of your money. Probably unless you’re building some crazy metal titanium. I don’t know what it is, right. The margins air in the service. So in many ways, your start up costs really aren’t that significant.
Brandon:
And you can start generating money from the day you start as long as you have business, Which it sounds like the demand is high, right?
Brandon:
Yeah. What Z kind of funny. I will go back just on skills a little bit, but we way both. Once we won, some of the prizes were welders. You know, a couple of the company’s gave out a welder thio each of the winter. So Trevor and I kind of started this whole business on. Well, there’s that we won and we were kind of laughing. We still use them today that you know, that these air welders that we want and they were free to us. But now they’ve made us, you know, they built us this company almost so it’s kind of cool to look back on that and see that. But like we said to from the beginning is we kind of always were welding from when we were kids. So the tooling that we, uh, had got a started and then now we’ve we’ve invested money into getting better tools to make it easier on us like we just bought a last year.
Trevor:
Last December, we bought a CNC plasma table that it can fit if I buy anything that we could throw on the computer. And, you know, so that that tool alone we have big plans on that kind of almost becoming a business is well, which it still could, and we still are looking to do that. It’s just the time of the day, but it kind of pays for itself in the ease in the efficiency. You know, we could throw something on that, cut it out, and while that’s working, we could do other stuff and it just makes life so much easier. So looking forward, I think that’s what we’re going to be doing is, you know, investing in the tools and making things easier and quicker to get it out. But the startup tools we were extremely basic, but with now collected more. So we got plenty of tools that we have it, you know, any time Thio to make it easy on us. So that’s what the tools do is just make it better and easier for the job.
Trevor:
Thio not to that point is it also makes us competitive, too. I mean, you’re playing with people that have been established in the Bay Area of fabricating shops and they have those schools right, so you can do something three different ways and to be competitive. I think they’re doing really got us there and to be able to continue to make the profit that we need to make the same business as well as to put a bit out there for the bigger jobs and then to get accepted because we’re able to compete, I think there’s a lot that he said to the right the right tool for the right job.
Will:
Yeah, I think it’s interesting. I’m a tech guy here in Silicon Valley.
Brandon:
So and usually that’s the discussion, right?
Brandon:
Which is it’s always tech, tech, tech. But I think living in Half Moon Bay the interesting part is is that I think we had a hardware company, right? We had GoPro we we had, ah, wall, a drink company. And now, as I as I’m listening to you, I’m thinking Wow, like this is Actually there’s a huge demand for welders in the area. And what a start up, You know, there’s a welding startup, which is not something you hear every day, right? I mean, it’s it’s ah really unique story. And I think it’s it’s fun that you actually won the welder, the welder itself.
Brandon:
I mean, what away toe your company? I always hear like there there’s ways Thio get started, and I think some people in the service business think that Oh, well, service business isn’t worth as much or whatever, but service business.
Brandon:
At least you can. You can make really good margins and you can start charging from day one.
Brandon:
Yeah, it’s just like we’re I mean now we bought another welder so, like the smaller ones would only get us, you know, so far. So now we just invest into the bigger Wilder, which is twice as fast, twice as much power that we could now do bigger jobs with and and so that kind of is just the progression. But yeah, I don’t want to stick fun, too.
Trevor:
It’s part of our business, and it’s huge and thio kind of touch base on that In our business. Plan to jump back to that was, Hey, we want to do structural steel, right? I mean, there’s a The cost of the materials is high. The the labor isn’t as high for that type of work where, you know, some of the ornamental ironwork is very fine. And you’re just so many different spends and cuts and wells with the steelworks. There’s more to production to it, and, uh and you bid those jobs, right? And so we could We have talked about that in our business planning in December of last year, but to get there is that well, they’re right because you need a toe well for these certifications and requirements from the AWS which is, which is law?
Will:
For certain types of structures, you have to have a certain type of machine. So I think the tooling really plays into the work. That you? Yeah, in the planning. Right. We plan for the structural steel and we planned for the tool and then made it happen. And now here we are doing structural steel A swell as though it was very purposeful place that you were shooting for.
Will:
Yeah, and then we kind of just, you know, work it into our plan.
Brandon:
Just said, Okay, we’ve got some money now. It’s by the swelter, and hopefully we’ll get a job to pay for it. And so it kind of just works out if you plan it enough. Correct. You know, it’s just planning, like our business plan.
Trevor:
And acting on it is the biggest thing is making it happen. So sometimes it’s hard to say Oh, man, we got to go, You know, by this $25,000 piece of equipment toe save us time. But time and money equals out eventually.
Trevor:
So, uh, find balance. I think of what you can get by with rather than be efficient with because we could still do. The jobs were doing now with, you know, a machine that we already had. But this is twice as fast, so we’re able to do twice as much jobs with that machine. So e think that’s important, that people don’t understand when you buy the machines that make you more efficient.
Trevor:
It’s also about Is making that machine. You gotta keep that machine working right? Like you’re saying that Z as much machine you have the key Thio To really get in our ally out of that thing is to keep it working. 24 7. It needs not need not stop. But I want to go back on something. Trevor and I’m completely biased because I’m the guy who always says that entrepreneurs need business plans, and entrepreneurs always tell me that it’s in their not always, obviously, because YouTube planned it. But a lot of entrepreneurs say it’s in my head, Brandon, and you know, then I say, Well, let’s sit down and can you write it on a napkin for me? And they can’t answer the questions because it’s not all in their head, and until it’s on paper, you can’t see it all right. But you said in December, do you do, uh, end of the year shutdown meeting to say pretty much.
Brandon:
I mean, we don’t completely shut down, but we spend a good, solid week where, you know, we’re in the office, and it kind of helps that work slows a little bit.
Trevor:
Or we spot slow last year in the in the rainy season, and we were able to spend that good, solid week. Oh, brainstorming and looking at our finances from last year and getting ready for the tax season. So we’re ahead of the game, you know, December putting our punching, the punching, all the receipts and invoices. And we keep track of. But, you know, you really dive into it.
Will:
You plan that week, Trevor, do you? You and we’ll say Okay, Monday, we’re going to go over this Tuesday. We’re gonna What does that look like for? For I call it a shutdown, but and your business doesn’t shut down. But effective you are. You’re down to a minimal operation so that you can actually take a look without being in the day to day.
Brandon:
I think this is key for anyone with a business plan. is to review, and it is a living document. So I think the first thing that we do in that week is reviewed the last year’s revised business plan. Because it’s it’s always changing. So it’s nice to you can go back to the first one, you know, the next year you have a revised plan. And so the goal is to read Thio, revisit the business plan and all your financials, and look at the efficiency of the business and forecasts for the future and kind of come up with a game plan for how you’re going to attack the next year. It’s a lot of strategy, so I think if you start revisiting and then you look at the the critical points, I think you start toe, see they start to come to the surface from the past year. What are the critical things we need to talk about? And then from there, it’s It’s brainstorming. That’s one of my favorite activities since I was a little kid is that everything could go on the table. Nothing’s discounted until the end, so you spend this time where yeah, just ideas pour in, and then we find the best one.
Will:
That way we’re moving forward. If it be it be purchasing a piece of equipment or or growth. You know, we’re looking at, you know, hopefully growing to having a few employees in the next couple of years. But you get that you don’t see it.
Will:
Look, marketing and branding Are we doing a good job? There should be the best, and that kind of just goes based on that’s playing, running through it and then touching based on the critical points that need adjustment.
Will:
So one thing I’m interested in is you both. You’ve got a plan, you’ve got sort of a way forward.
Brandon:
The fact is is that you’re both welders, so you’re welding.
Brandon:
You’re planning.
Brandon:
You’re recording all your receipts.
Brandon:
It sounds like you doing some of your own accounting, and then you’ve got to sell.
Brandon:
So how do you balance all of this between you to figure out how you’re going to do that?
Brandon:
Because when you’re small, it’s really hard.
Brandon:
You gotta market and sell by the same time while you’re producing.
Brandon:
Yeah, you know, it’s kind of not toe, really push on cove it, But we have this plan to go out market shake hands.
Brandon:
I think shaking hands with people in other businesses is the best way toe, you know, market yourself if it’s not just worried about that.
Brandon:
Kind of that kind of happened, but we really have grown word of mouth wise. But we do split work up.
Will:
Yeah, between ourselves, like Ciara, like we said, doing the computer work. And he’s really good at the business planning and accounting all the design and stuff. And then So the way that we make it efficient is Trevor’s kind of doing that in the background. Sometimes he’s in the office. Well, I’m in the shop and then, you know, whenever the paperwork gets done, you jumped into the shop and helps out with that as well. But at least we’re continuously, you know, we’re still working, getting the work done, and then we kind of meet up every morning and go over our day, go over our week and just come together and figure out how we’re going to get it done.
Trevor:
So I think just spending, you know, half on hour, an hour in the morning or even at night, we will text each other, call each other and just say, Hey, we got you know, this just came up and we need it done by Wednesday or however it is. And so by doing that, doing that little bit of planning or even if it’s just overtaxed, like, Hey, we yeah, tomorrow, how are we going to get that done?
Trevor:
And then you know, if it’s Trevor taking up materials 12, I’m working in the shop and we’re getting to things done at once, which is nice having a partner, because we could, you know, bounce off of each other.
Trevor:
He could do something.
Trevor:
I do something.
Trevor:
We’re doing two things at once, essentially.
Trevor:
So it works out pretty good, I think, for for that part talking about partnerships. One of the most interesting things that I’ve seen is that we appeal to the customers differently, right.
Trevor:
We are two different people, and so they’re drawn to each one of us in a different way. So we kind of we feel that in those first interactions that they start asking one of us more questions. That and they kind of let that happen naturally. And then we each run with the clients that kind of are drawn to each of us.
Will:
So?
Trevor:
So those times were even splitting clients as point of contacts. We’re feeling separate calls and then just having the conversation like, Hey, this is what’s going on And then we can game playing before either of us response to those clients. It’s really cool. It’s interesting. Yeah, that’s kind of what happens.
Will:
I don’t know what it is either, but it is just, uh I don’t know. Hard to explain, I guess. But yeah, it’s totally true. We’ll have our both of our phones will be ringing at the same time. And it’s two different people, you know.
Trevor:
And then even working on a job will be like, Okay, Trevor, Well, could you call them and just check in with this or, you know, vice versa?
Trevor:
I will. Could you call them and and see what the updates are? So I think that part is kind of cool, too, because it’s not one of us answering the phone, you know, And any time a customer could called Trevor or call me if they can’t get a hold of us good having two people there and it works out pretty good, I think.
Trevor:
Don’t you think that that takes some level of true trust because it can be hard, right?
Trevor:
You’re in this partnership and you have to be willing to let go of that relationship in the sense of trusting your partner.
Brandon:
To go with that, you too, seem to get along.
Brandon:
And for all of our listeners, the first time I ever met either of these guys is that on the zoom cause I’ve heard a lot about him living in Half Moon Bay and from local people. But you seem to trust each other deeply and have that understanding is a pretty mature relationship.
Brandon:
What is the what?
Brandon:
What’s the magic like? What’s the key to that? Because that doesn’t always happen. And that’s usually why businesses fail, quite frankly, is one is people. Yeah, I mean, you guys seem to have that that flow, if you will.
Brandon:
I think it’s a four letter word time.
Brandon:
Yeah, I mean, we’re going on shoot what, 88 years? Somewhere around the eight year mark of working to have worked together really way did trust each other if they friendship, first of them business and on DNA knowing how each other works.
Will:
E. I think that It’s just a trust each other. We we’ve bonded all this time and and now we know that if Trevor doesn’t get it done or I don’t get it done, it’s on ourselves. And so it is. It’s challenging at some points in like Trevor says, we have different ways of doing things, but you just kind of look at it and balance it and then obviously bad mood that day.
Trevor:
You just get the work done and go home. But if we it’s fine with, get along just fine and like Trevor said, it’s time and just relying on that person and trusting that person because that’s all you can dio.
Trevor:
So I think it’s just you have Thio.
Trevor:
I think it’s good advice. I think it’s just like Dating, not going to get married. I mean, you can first three weeks. My wife and I quote unquote dated for, I think 14 years. Some people might say that’s excessive, but I’d suggest that after 24 it’s probably good indication that we you know what you’re doing and I think that’s the case with entrepreneurship is and look, I’ve made the mistake. I think you guys are lucky in many ways toe have found that and in many ways work together on someone else’s tab, so to speak, even if it’s going to school to get to know that. But I think it’s important and you guys seem to do that. How do you You know my my question along building up to this because you both seem to get along. You both sort of understand each other. I can tell you’re definitely different in some respects.
Brandon:
But how do you resolve a conflict when you’re in a partnership thing to extreme?
Brandon:
I mean, there’s differences.
Trevor:
I think in the in the way, say we look at money or or even just a project because the simple project could like, Trevor said earlier.
Brandon:
There’s three different ways. Well, there’s sometimes there’s 100 different ways and and if we think one way needs to be done, and I think it’s just like being married like you said is you just kind of come to a middle ground and either have a middle ground or just have the nerve to say okay, we’re going to do this your way, and that’s what’s gonna happen.
Trevor:
But sometimes is a thing where you don’t know what, but it’s we all.
Trevor:
We get it done in the end. So that’s kind of all that matters. And we move past it and just say, Okay, well, that one’s done there, jobs that you’re like, Okay, we need to get this thing done so it’s out of our hair, But, uh, I don’t know if you want to speak on that just a little bit.
Trevor:
It’s like it’s case the case and something that’s maybe we have a conflict of thought process or the way something should be built like will send and and it’s almost like the best one wins.
Trevor:
You bring two things to the table, and it’s like, Okay, we can both look at it were not so held on tow. Our idea that we’re not gonna let it go. It’s like, let’s look at this for the best one, and then we move forward very quickly that way, and then to the financial aspect, Yeah, I think it’s kind of the same way or you mull it over. You talk. You really do talk through it and have a debate about it, and we listen to each other and then make a decision based on off the talk and the discussion.
Will:
Yeah, I don’t know that. You guys, actually, I think it just happened. Maybe, but one of the things that you said is really important there is that you have the debate.
Brandon:
It’s always personal, but you have to learn to not take it personally. And then you have to agree that you’re moving forward in a way and you can’t hold talking about this earlier this morning with somebody you need to be on board as a team so that you don’t say I told you so. And I think you guys do in that way. Is that fair?
Brandon:
Yeah, I think so as well.
Trevor:
It’s We’re not fighting again, you know, if there is a conflict which it doesn’t happen very often.
Brandon:
But if there is a conflict, were going towards the same goal in the end.
Trevor:
So I think just however, whichever way we choose to get there is kind of the main thing, and then there’s there’s like instead of million ways to do one thing. So it’s just finding that and finding the balance of which route we’re gonna take and then just taking it and and usually it works out. So that’s like, Well, I want to say congratulations because I didn’t pay you guys for everybody listening to tee up, you need a business plan and how important it is.
Trevor:
But you guys are both a Testament and Dexter. Welding is, and the success so far as planning works. Staying to the plan and having a good partnership to execute that plan is what would be three from both of you, not six.
Brandon:
But you can each figured out sharing it are three H P.
Brandon:
T s. I call them high percentage tips for fellow entrepreneurs out there that are looking Thio either to start a service business or any business. Really, in that way, I think that business plan we’ve been talking about it.
Brandon:
I think it’s crucial Thio startup business, at least having it all written down and something you can revisit. And there’s mean we look at ours and it’s like, Oh, yeah, that’s right. We wanted to focus on this and the, you know, in the big picture, Lett’s Let’s get back to that. Most people know what a business plan is, but there’s mission statement, a focus of what you’re trying to accomplish in the the big picture and then tag onto that is branding in a professional image. I think it is the key moving forward in the business world.
Will:
Then I think goals on that as well, which is in your business plan, but having your goals and looking at him.
Trevor:
It’s because if you look at your goals, you know where you have to get to to achieve them.
Trevor:
So I think that’s huge on on the business plan side of that one more, I guess patients, what the growing business.
Trevor:
I mean, there’s times where we talk about Let’s just take the next step by the next thing that you know, and then way. Okay, we had a game plan. We’re gonna do that later. It’s not just not gonna happen overnight.
Will:
Patience is key.
Will:
I think that’s a good and patience is trust, right? I mean, trust in yourself in the business, in things that will will come because I think we all want to jump ahead. Of course, we’re entrepreneurs, you want to go get it. But I think that’s a key thing and I think over time as you get more experience. You realize that if you are patient, it will come. But you actually have to see that happen to believe that it will happen. So it’s like this chicken or the egg. But if you do it, I think that’s true. Well, how would people find you to try to get a quote from you on a project for any sort of welding?
Brandon:
I think 1st, 1st thing, go to our website dexter welding dot com Phone number.
Brandon:
There’s a form you can fill out if you want to shoot this.
Will:
A quick question.
Trevor:
Our emails on there if you have something that you really want to send us pictures of an explanation to yeah, and then the other way have an instagram.
Will:
We don’t post too often on it. It’s something that we we want to dio and just don’t have Time of the day or we don’t pay attention to it enough.
Trevor:
But definitely Instagram and and it’s a goal of mine as well as Trevor’s as well is Thio. Get posted on that and just get online. Thio show people projects not only just show what we can do, but like what we have done in the past. Well, which? There’s pictures on the website as well, but well, well, we can, and I think you are at Dexter.
Trevor:
Welding on instagram.
Trevor:
Right. Well, hey, guys. Thanks so much for taking time out of your day to do this podcast. I’m excited. Maybe I’ll get down there and check out your facility on one of my bike rides and then headed down there on and wish you the very best of success in 2021.
Brandon:
Great. Thank you. Thank you for having us. Thank you very much.
Trevor:
Oh, man, That was fun, right? Thanks, Will And Trevor, for sharing your story. That was It was it was done fun. And, uh, I really feel good. Gosh, I feel like wielding. You’re making welding. Cool. So thanks for coming on and sharing your story.
Brandon:
And thank you, friends for tuning into the show. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate review. We want to hear from you and subscribe. So you don’t miss any of our weekly episodes until the next time. Remember, you are just one business plan away. I’m rooting for your success. We’ll see you.
Brandon:
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