Richard F. with A Total Plumbing
Q. How long have you been in business?
A. Twenty-one years, but up until 2019 we did all home warranty work, so really 4 years.
Q. What is the best advice you could give another contractor or business owner?
A. Find a mentor who has been where you are and has gone where you want to go. Then, do everything they say to do. I’d also suggest that they follow the Blue Collar Selling System.
Q. How long have you been a Blue Collar member?
A. Since March of 2019.
Q. How many team members / trucks do you have?
A. We have 33 team members and 23 trucks
Q. What was your business/revenue health like before and after joining The Blue Collar Success Group?
A. Before joining the Blue Collar Success Group, we were heavily in debt and mostly doing home warranty work. We had a completely mismatched fleet of vans, and we’re living month to month. I saw Chris speaking at a trade show and liked what he had to say, so I stopped by his booth. After speaking with him, I joined Blue Collar’s most basic membership. It was tough getting the money together, but I thought I owed it to my family and my business to try.
On our first phone call, Chris told me to set a goal for four years from now. I set the goal at $10 million. It has now been four years and this year we hit the $10 million mark. We have essentially grown 7 times in revenue since we started with Blue Collar, and the impact on both our company and our personal lives has been profound. In 2021 I was able to purchase a special van for my son Jackson, who has been a quadriplegic since birth. We are now able to take him everywhere. I called Chris when we got the van and told him, “Look what you did!” It was a special moment for all of us.
Q. If you were to grade your company’s financial and operational health before and after Blue Collar, what would it be?
A. Financial health before would be an F-. Now, it’s an A+. As for operations, before it was an F; now it’s a B-. We still have work to do.
Q. Is there anything else you’d like to add?
A. With Blue Collar, it’s more than just the information and training. It’s their people. Chris and Kenny are great, Jeremy is an amazing coach, Chelsea is the glue that holds everything together, Natalie is wonderful to work with and is always there if I have a question, and so on. All I can say is that the Blue Collar team not only opened up their toolbox to me, they also opened up their hearts.
