Allen (SGT) Savage

Tile & Grout Solutions, Topeka, Kansas

Give us a little back round on yourself: Married, Children, Age, and Hobbies/Activities you and your family participate in?
Married 11 yrs, 3 children,I’m 37 yrs young .I like coaching my kids baseball teams and fishing for Bass and Catfish.

Tell us how you got started in the biz, when and why.
I previously owned 4 Chem-dry Franchises, 1 in CA and 3 In Kansas.They got to be too much of a big brother. So we turned them in after looking into this and have not looked back.

Give us some more details about your business: size, employees, # trucks, market, focus/services provided.
Were small 1 van and I truck,1 full time employee and me.

Market focus is on anybody who will use us. Service we provide; cleaning, clearsealing and a little bit of colorsealing (will be doing more in the future).

What are your biggest strengths and weaknesses in business?
My biggest strength is being a problem solver (adapt and overcome)
My biggest weakness is being a control freak in every aspect of my business.

If you could start over at day one, what would you do differently?
Started this business 5 yrs ago.

If you had to give up your current business, what would you do to earn a living?
Working at a big corporation sitting on my backside making a guaranteed paycheck.

Where do you see your business in 2 years, 5 years, and 10 years?
2 yrs mostly sales and helping on large jobs
5 yrs 2-3 fulltime trucks
10 yrs sitting in the stands watching my boys playing collegiate ball at Cal State Fullerton and calling the office to find out the days totals.

What has been the biggest surprise, good or bad, since you started?
The type of money that can be made by just educating the customer.

What is the most important thing you will be adding, doing, changing in the next year for you business?
Two things:
#1 Going to a class by MB or Tom to get the knowledge to be a troubleshooter and problem solver.
# 2 staying in constant contact with my own clients and the tile stores and installers. Oh and reading DG everyday.

What is your ideal job that you would take everyday or want more of?
Do what you feel needs to be done ,the garage code is 1234 and then the custy leaves for vacation.

Do you feel you spend too much, too little or just the right amount of time on your business?
Right now too much but I’m building a foundation.

Tell us about your best and worst job you have done.
Best was approx 300 sq ft ceramic kitchen floor clean and clear seal $ 1,248.00 4 hrs total work.
Worst was a tub surround that was supposed to be a clean and seal and recaulk. Turned into a 3 day nightmare. A lot of water damage to the tile and shower that I did not diagnose properly. (NEVER AGAIN)

If you had to choose one thing that has been the most important tool/resource/decision in your business what would it be?
No brown nosing here, but this board. You can ask an elementary question and not get slammed by all the BOARD GURUS.

What will be the next thing you want to get: Employee, Truck, Salesperson, Secretary, Tool, Equipment?
Education from the big dogs and then a truckmount.

What do you most enjoy about this business and hate about it?
I enjoy the money and the fact people are happy when your able to fix there problems.
I hate going in on cold calls and the person making $ 9.50 an hr gives you attitude.

Any words of wisdom for someone looking to get into this field of business?
Stay out of Topeka Kansas I have a good thing here. Read the past post and get some real world cleaning experience under your belt. Then go out and sell, sell, sell.

Last but not least tell us something about you that would surprise us to know.
In the late 80’s I was one of the top ranked amateur skateboarders in California. Oh and Ian this one is for you , I spent 3 nites and 4 days in a Tijuana jail.  One of the reasons I joined the Marine Corps