Are you ready to unlock the secrets of scaling a small business from the ground up? Join us on "Small Business Big World" as we sit down with Chris Fortin, the owner of Service Bros. Chris started his entrepreneurial journey during the COVID-19 lockdown while still in high school, initially watering lawns for his father's landscaping business and quickly expanding into odd jobs. He shares how he leveraged word of mouth and local Facebook groups to grow his business. Chris's story is a must-listen for anyone navigating the early stages of business growth.
Chris discusses why transparency and understanding their limits were crucial for maintaining customer satisfaction. We also touch on the dynamics of running a business with a close friend, managing operations remotely while attending college, and their commitment to community support through affordable moving options and partnerships with organizations like Habitat for Humanity.
Small Business Big World has been featured by FeedSpot as a top 50 small business podcast! Check it out here!
Are you ready to unlock the secrets of scaling a small business from the ground up? Join us on "Small Business Big World" as we sit down with Chris Fortin, the owner of Service Bros. Chris started his entrepreneurial journey during the COVID-19 lockdown while still in high school, initially watering lawns for his father's landscaping business and quickly expanding into odd jobs. He shares how he leveraged word of mouth and local Facebook groups to grow his business. Chris's story is a must-listen for anyone navigating the early stages of business growth.
Chris discusses why transparency and understanding their limits were crucial for maintaining customer satisfaction. We also touch on the dynamics of running a business with a close friend, managing operations remotely while attending college, and their commitment to community support through affordable moving options and partnerships with organizations like Habitat for Humanity.
Small Business Big World has been featured by FeedSpot as a top 50 small business podcast! Check it out here!
Speaker 1:
This is Small Business Big World, our weekly podcast prepared by the team at Paper Trails. Owning and running a small business is hard. Each week we'll dive into the challenges, headaches, trends, fun and excitement of running a small business. After all, small businesses are the heartbeat of America and our team is here to keep them beating. Welcome to Small Business Big World, our weekly podcast talking about all things small business. This week I have Chris Fortin with us with Service Bros. Welcome, chris. Yeah, thank you, excellent. So before we get going, of course, our usual housekeeping. Don't forget to like, follow, share, subscribe, rate, review, all of those fun things. We're at Small Business Big World everywhere you listen to your podcast on all the socials. Don't forget about that. Be sure to email any questions you have for us to podcast at paperchillscom and we're happy to answer those on the podcast. So, chris, service Bros, talk to me about what you guys do at Service Bros.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, so we started off doing a little bit of everything, but right now our niche is furniture moving, furniture deliveries, household goods moving and junk removal, and we do slight brush removal too.
Speaker 1:
Okay, so Service Bros, you started this in high school, right? How old were you when you started?
Speaker 2:
this? Yeah, this was well. This was my junior year of high school. I started doing the odd jobs and everything, so I was about 19.
Speaker 1:
Okay, yeah, and why? You know, why'd you want to start?
Speaker 2:
doing that? Well, long story. So I was working at a restaurant down in Kennebunkport, you know, throughout high school and everything. And then, once COVID hit, they unfortunately went out of business, so I was out of a job and so this was when, during the lockdown and everything, I was trying to think about what to do for the summer and my father owned a landscaping company and he had put in was putting in new lawns for customers that didn't live in town, so they weren't around. He was seeding them, so they weren't around. He was seeding them, so they weren't around to water and they didn't have irrigation. So he had hired me to do the lawns, to water the lawns twice a day, 5 am and 5 pm. And so I started my. I had my little route and I did my lawns. I'd water at 5 am and 5 pm and my dad would pay me like $20 a lawn, which is a good, good little gig making good little gig, making like 160 a day just watering lawns.
Speaker 2:
But it was kind of a grind getting up and when I was watering the lawns I was thinking I don't want to be doing this all summer. You know, I always had, you know, landscaping as like my back, like my you know fallback. But you know that's not really something I wanted to fully do. So I kept thinking a little business ideas and I was kind of getting sick of waking up at 4, 30, whatever to go water the, go water the lawns for the sunrise.
Speaker 2:
So I had hired my friend Thomas to do the morning lawns at a little discount. So I hired him at like $15 a lawn. So you had a subcontractor already. Yeah, it's my first feeling of getting like an employee, yep, so my dad would pay me the total and I would pay Thomas at the end of the week for all the lawns that we did. So I was making some money in my sleep. So that was a really good kind of feeling. And then eventually, while I was watering, I came up with the idea of Service Bros, just basically selling our labor to people doing a bunch of odd jobs, doing a bunch of random things at our own price.
Speaker 1:
Nice. So when you, you know, so you hired Thomas, you kind of got into it. How did you guys market yourself to you know, to prospects? Was it through your network, through your father and things like that?
Speaker 2:
Well, I think I think, just speaking to the County Bound community is huge. It's word of mouth, especially like Facebook, facebook groups. Our first ever job we did a deck staining job for my sister's family that she babysat for and they were new to town and they had this new. They just moved in and they had this old deck and they wanted to kind of revamp and town. And they had this new, they just moved in and they had this old deck and they wanted to kind of revamped and they asked us to, you know, pressure wash it, sand it and stain it. And you know it was my first time doing that.
Speaker 2:
But we just looked it up on YouTube, kind of looked up how to do it and we decided to just give it a shot. We gave it a price based on the quotes that they got from other companies, when like a thousand dollars cheaper. It's our first time doing it. But we spent the whole week doing it, me and Thomas, and it came out really well and we split the money 50-50, and that was my first kind of taste of the whole earning a better wage than whatever you get at a normal restaurant job. So then we would post it on Facebook and then that's how it kind of spread Nice.
Speaker 1:
So how did you? You talked about the pricing there Were you guys pricing your labor hourly? Yeah, that's a big question, right? How do I price myself? How do I figure that out? How did you guys go through that process?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, originally we just chose a number. We chose $25 an hour per guy, so Tom and I would each make $25 an hour and that was way better than what we were getting before. So we were happy with it and customers were happy because it was a lot cheaper than the movers or the other labor you could hire. Yep.
Speaker 1:
So I know you guys evolved over time. So certainly you were just two guys starting working out. My guess is probably the tax situation wasn't totally on the up and up, which is to be expected. But how did you transition that business? Because now you have an LLC, you have advisors, you have a business, you have more than just you know one employee, right? How did that? How did you figure out that you needed to move in that direction? How'd you do that?
Speaker 2:
Yeah. So in that first summer it definitely was more of like a side hustle. We just get Venmo's with our cash checks right to our names and, yeah, it's a little shady. So eventually, in it was actually last my sophomore year of college we set up the LLC because once we started making real money I was like, okay, I should start doing this legit, especially if I wanted to scale. I think having a good foundation to build upon is the biggest thing. So I wanted to do it the right way. So actually I had met up with Score in Southern Maine they have mentors for you and totally free mentor services and I met my mentor, heidi Hansen. She's great, owned a big company, had sold it and then now she just helps volunteer and help individuals start businesses Nice, kind of do it the right way. So I was speaking with her my second summer into the business, just kind of like getting the idea and start thinking about what to do and how to do it. And then eventually my sophomore year of college, we implemented the LLC.
Speaker 1:
And then come the summertime- we had the payroll and insurance all set up and a whole nine yards, so you were ready to rock and roll. Yeah, I mean, how has the business grown and taken off over the years? I mean, obviously, how many employees do you have?
Speaker 2:
now. Right now it kind of fluctuates based on the summer. There's a lot more demand in the summer, but actually we have around five to eight full department time guys, right.
Speaker 1:
And that's just doing odd jobs. Yeah, exactly, because none of us want to do that, right? So, um, so, that's really great. So what, um you know? What have you seen in terms of you know as you've grown? What are the things you've learned in that growth? What are you know? What is the? What are those struggles look like?
Speaker 2:
Well, yeah, I mean growing. I think you just have to be able to adapt, Um, and also finding a little bit of a niche. We started out doing a little bit of everything pressure washing, deck painting, lawn care, whatever, just light, landscaping, moving just a little bit of everything. And over time we kind of figured out what we like and what we don't like. So from there we just had to tell customers, oh, we're not offering that anymore, we stopped advertising that and we kind of went down to our niche, which was moving, because it doesn't require a lot of equipment, doesn't require a lot of stuff, it's mostly just manual labor services.
Speaker 2:
So that became our big niche and we ended up. A big break was we ended up working with a local hospitality company and their design team where they would have their designers kind of buy stuff for their properties and they'd hire us to go set it all up, move things, Doing the seasonal setups, Doing the seasonal setups, decorating and all that kind of stuff. So that was huge to get into that market, kind of being the local muscle for those types of companies. So that kind of what allowed us to grow and just being flexible is what allowed us to do that, what you know?
Speaker 1:
certainly I'm sure you've met some of the moms in town that you know what bad experiences have you had, what, and that was a total stereotype. What bad experiences have you had what, what, and that was a total stereotype. But you know, I mean the cranky moms. But you know how have you dealt with with customers that have had issues right? Or you know, have you had any of those?
Speaker 2:
issues. I can't really name any off the top of my head, but Five stars on Google for service pros.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I hope so. I haven't checked. I think just being totally transparent with customers is the biggest thing. If you're not comfortable doing something, just letting them know like I don't feel comfortable doing this, and referring to somebody that might be better equipped to do it, especially starting out, you don't want to bite off more than you can chew because it kind of digs yourself into a hole. So I've been trying to avoid those types of situations. But if any of those did arise, we just you know, customer's always right and you just have to you know bite the bullet and just take the loss and I think it's good to know that.
Speaker 1:
Know your limits right, know what you want to do, know what you're good at. Don't try to do something you don't want to do and aren't good at right. That's when the problems usually happen. So I think that's a great, great piece of advice.
Speaker 1:
That comes with a trial and error, like we said, of like push that aside and started focusing on the good stuff. So obviously, I know you work. You know your buddy Thomas is kind of a business partner, right? So how has that been? You know working with your friend, right? How has that? How has it evolved from being a peer to being a leader? Right? That's always the challenge we all have as leaders.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, so I mean initially, in the start and still now I always put our friendship over money or over any business. So, like in the start, I was operating the Facebook, I was talking to the customers scheduling the jobs and Thomas was doing the jobs with me. But we just split everything 50-50 initially, just because I didn't want to bicker over pennies on the dollar, whatever you know. And so then, once we had the LLC formed, I put it as a sole proprietorship for myself, just so it's, for it makes it a lot easier and less complicated instead of having business partners.
Speaker 2:
I learned that from my dad and so that dynamic changed to where Thomas was an employee now, but I made sure to treat him fairly and properly. A big thing is just communicating, just making sure that you're on the same page through everything and being totally transparent, because without him we wouldn't be where we are today. And you know, just maintaining that friendship is the biggest thing. I mean, we're friends first, and if the business goes down, then it doesn't matter, because I still love him as a friend.
Speaker 1:
So how are you managing this? You're out of college now, right? So how are you managing things from away, right yeah? So how are you managing?
Speaker 2:
things from away right. Yeah, so that's a huge thing is keep having Thomas around. He's been around home and managing all the jobs. So we switched from me kind of managing everything in the back end, giving him more responsibility. So he deals with the customer communications and like the day-to-day and managing the jobs and making sure they're done right, Because we've learned over time how to do them, how to do them properly. So he kind of is like he's my general manager, so over time, how to do them, how to do them properly. So he kind of was like he's my general manager. So you know, he gets compensated. We have commission based on certain jobs. He gets commissioned for those jobs. So he gets paid more than the normal employee or crew leader or worker, you know.
Speaker 1:
So Great and you've really built a process around that, which is important in every business. Yeah, exactly, it's great With, you know, being away at college, where you know where do you see the business going from here? Right, you're, you know you're, you have a couple of years left to college. Business is going well, you know. Where do you see? Do you see this being the next 20 years of your life? Do you see this being something you know? That's just been a great you know hustle through.
Speaker 2:
You know no-transcript. A lot of people rely on us for affordable moving, whether it's between your house or between like. We work with the Habitat for Humanity Restores just providing like affordable options for people and I see a big need for that and I just love like giving back to the community.
Speaker 1:
So who knows where it's going to go? Sounds like it's onward up, which is great.
Speaker 2:
Onward up. I want to maintain it as much as possible and keep growing and keep learning as much as possible.
Speaker 1:
So if you had to go back to your junior year in high school, right when you started this, what would you give? What advice would you give yourself Right, what have you learned over those?
Speaker 2:
last few years, um, honestly, just keep doing, just keep trying. I mean there's no time. If I, if I thought, um, when I back then, if I thought to the future, like in four years, and said like, oh, I want to be here, I feel like I wouldn't know where to start, I'd be kind of overwhelmed. I wouldn't know out to the future, it's good to set goals, small, achievable goals, and just keep going and keep like moving forward, just taking those little steps at a time. There's no time, there's no better time to start than now. You know like if you're young or old, you can always use age as an excuse, but I think, no matter what, you should just keep.
Speaker 1:
I think you've found that if you work hard and you do a decent service or a decent product, then the sky's the limit right.
Speaker 2:
Right, just do something you like doing and that you're confident in doing, and learn as you go.
Speaker 1:
So you worked with a score advisor, right? I mean, I know they're really heavy on helping you build your business plan, helping you get in touch with strategic advisors and things like that. What else did they?
Speaker 2:
help you with. Well, it mostly was just the logistics I had. You know the. I reached out to them with like after like two years of being in operations, but at that point it was just like a side hustle. We had my process kind of set up, my pricing set up, um how we run things, um and just it. They really helped me get legal and working with um accountants and stuff I am working with my family accountant that had worked for my dad's company, so that was an easy in and so I I mean they just helped with like legalize everything and allow me to kind of learn the ropes, because without them I wouldn't know really what I'm doing.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, we've talked a lot on the podcast about you know having those, you know trusted advisors, right? It's the accountant, it's the attorney, it's the financial advisor, so much more. And you know those really. You know we're not experts in everything, right? So even it doesn't matter if you're starting your business in high school, you're, you know, starting at 50, still not probably going to be the expert in everything.
Speaker 2:
Exactly, just having those ideas is important. And then you know working with a team to kind of build upon those ideas.
Speaker 1:
That was important. That's great. Any other thoughts or advice on where you've been? What are you thinking? All right?
Speaker 2:
So another piece of advice I was thinking is you can't like compare yourself to other people. Like I could look at like big moving companies, like college hunks are like two men in a truck, right, and I could be like I'm never going to be like that. But like that's comparing apples to oranges. I feel like everyone's journey is their own thing and I don't want to base my company off of what other people are doing. I want to do my own thing. Sure, and like you learn as you go. You don't want to like have a predetermined mindset, Like I didn't come into it saying, oh, I'm only going to do moving, junk removal, Right Furniture deliveries. You know you kind and understand how do you differentiate yourself and how did you guys figure that out? How did you say, hey, well, we're to our community and how Candy Monk is, it's great. So I think that was a big, big boost in the beginning and from there it kind of gave us the confidence to keep branching out and working. Working with other companies allowed us to get the confidence.
Speaker 1:
Well, building network and obviously getting the feedback from your clients and all that right, Well, good, Well, how can folks find you guys, Service Bros, on Instagram?
Speaker 2:
online, yeah, so right now we have a Facebook page. We're looking to build out a website for the summer. We're looking at so this past, 2023 is our first like legit year and we got a trailer. We just got a truck recently for 2024. So we're looking at kind, our company, so right now it's just um service bros will seven on Facebook.
Speaker 1:
Okay, and looking at, like I said, looking to get a website going and more automation any young entrepreneurs, anybody that needs any moving in the main area here, southern main area, certainly reach out Awesome. Well, thanks, chris. Hey, just a reminder. Be sure to like follow things on Spotify, youtube, apple Podcasts, instagram, tiktok. We're everywhere. If you're there, we're there, promise you that. So at Small Business Big World, and again, don't forget, if you have any questions about anything, you can always reach out to us. Podcast at papertrailscom. Otherwise, we'll see you next week. Thanks so much, everybody.
Speaker 2:
Thank you, Chris.
Speaker 1:
Thanks for listening to this week's episode of Small Business Big World. This podcast is a production of Paper Trails. We are a payroll and HR company based in Kennebunk, maine, and we serve small and mid-sized businesses across New England and the country. If you found this podcast helpful, don't forget to follow us at at Paper Trails Payroll across all social media platforms and check us out at papertrailscom for more information. As a reminder, the views, opinions and thoughts expressed by the hosts and guests alone. The material presented in this podcast is for general information purposes only and should not be considered legal or financial advice. By inviting this guest to our podcast, paper Girls does not imply endorsement of or opposition to any specific individual, organization, product or service.
