Building Success & Systems: Growing Tony Geisel Construction from the Ground Up
Building Success & Systems: Growing Tony Geisel Construction from the Ground Up Tony Giesel Construction grew from a small operation to a successful remodeling company using Remodeling Business Strategies. Tony initially aimed to keep the business small but soon realized the importance of hiring the right people. Today, his team includes four full-time staff and up to 25 subcontractors. By applying these business strategies, Tony scaled effectively, building a reliable and capable team. These remodeling business techniques helped him navigate growth while ensuring quality and customer satisfaction. In this episode of The Contractor Grow Show, Mark talks with Tony Giesel, founder of Tony Giesel Construction, about growing his business from a small operation into a thriving remodeling company. By using effective Remodeling Business Strategies, Tony expanded his team, realizing the importance of hiring the right people. Tony started his business in 2009 with the intention of keeping it small, but quickly understood how crucial it was to scale up. Today, his team includes four full-time staff and up to 25 subcontractors, which has been key to his success. “You can get to a million or two, but you miss the systems and processes needed to scale to five million.” — Tony Giesel Tony credits much of his business growth to TV advertising, which took his Gutter Dome sales from a mere $8,500 annually to over $100,000. Despite the importance of marketing, Tony also emphasizes the power of referrals and word-of-mouth in building a strong brand. As he looks toward retirement in five years, Tony plans to focus more on traveling and voluntary service while ensuring the business continues to grow with the right people and processes in place. Topics Transcript Topics Discussed Building a Strong Team Tony discusses how hiring the right people, like his sons, and relying on subcontractors is key to growing a successful remodeling business. The Power of TV Advertising Learn how Tony’s company used TV ads to boost sales from $8,500 to over $100,000 annually in Gutter Dome products. The Value of Professionalism in Homebuilding Tony emphasizes why clients should hire experienced professionals rather than attempt DIY projects, focusing on quality and avoiding costly mistakes. Managing Unexpected Costs Tony shares how being flexible with pricing and budgeting for unknowns has helped him succeed in the unpredictable world of remodeling. Grant Cardone’s Influence Tony explains how Grant Cardone’s teachings on business growth and scaling have inspired him to focus on processes for expansion and long-term sustainability. Lessons in Scaling Tony offers advice on avoiding growing pains, emphasizing the importance of building systems and processes before scaling your business. Work-Life Balance & Hobbies Tony talks about his plans for retirement, which include traveling and volunteering, while still staying busy and connected to the industry. Audio Transcription Mark LamberthHello, and welcome to another episode of The Contractor Grow Show. My name is Mark, I’m your host, and today I have the pleasure of talking with Tony Geel at Tony Geel Construction over in Wichita. Tony, thanks for being here with us today. Tony GieselThanks for inviting me. Mark LamberthVery cool. So Tony, I saw you guys have got a lot of interesting stuff going on. You guys do home remodeling as well as outdoor structures. Maybe you could tell me a little bit about the history of the business and what you guys are up to today. Tony GieselI started my own business in September of 2009, and with the idea that I was going to just have all subtrades and no employees and within a few months I hired my first one. And since then we’ve hired two more. We’re still doing a lot of subtrades, trying to manage them, but still doing some of the finer work ourselves, especially the more detailed work. That’s a little bit where we shine is the detailed part of our business of for sure, the trim work and things like that deck building and some of that just the care that our team takes to put things together. Mark LamberthOkay, fantastic. So you’ve got four people on the team right now, and then how many subs do you tend to deal with? Tony GieselAnywhere from about 20 to 25. Mark LamberthOkay, great. And is it mostly remodels or you guys do some house building as well? Tony GieselWe do house building, but dollar wise, of course, the last one I built was a 1.8 million, something like that. Home. We have one, a new slash remodel, it’s an older home that we’re adding onto that’s an $800,000 project and we have a new one we’re working on that’s total. When the job is completed, it’ll be about 1.6, so that’s this year. And we have some window replacement jobs to do that. Each one is probably about $20,000. We got a bathroom remodel that’s 50,000. We have a kitchen remodel that’s over a hundred to start here after the first of the year. Mark LamberthAmazing. And it looks like, I mean, you guys have done great work in the marketplace. I see a lot of great reviews and a lot of great content on your website. I mean, does the business grow mostly by referrals to get these big jobs or do you guys do some outreach as well? And how are you able to get really in Wichita? It sounds like big, big projects. Tony GieselTV advertisement is a lot. That plays a pretty good part. It’s still a lot of referrals in some ways. Maybe our brand has been built and yet, I don’t know if it’s ever fully built, but one of the last jobs we did, I asked him where they heard about us from and they told us that a real estate agent, and I’d never met the lady. She told him, she said, if you want a good home built, you need to call Tony. Mark LamberthThat is awesome. Tony GieselGot to make you feel great. Yeah, Mark LamberthFantastic. And then I noticed that