Building with Heart: How Alfred Navarro’s Referral-Driven Company Thrives Through Relationships

Audio Transcription

Mark Lamberth:
Hello, 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 speaking with Alfred Navarro, Navarro Construction in Pasadena, California. Alfred, thanks for being with us today.

Alfred Navarro:
Thanks for having me.

Mark Lamberth:
Yeah, fantastic. So Alfred, maybe you could just tell us a little bit about the history of the business and where you guys are at today.

Alfred Navarro:

Sure. So I’ve been doing this about 33 years. Started really young. It was supposedly the easy road. So I got a job working in a house, kind of finishing a house for some people and working there full time, and they kind of planted the seed of, “Hey, have you thought about starting your own business?” I was like, no. So they started referring me to their friends, and eventually, I started contracting. And that was about 33 years ago. So we’ve been doing pretty well. I mean, we’ve, sorry. Sure, no problem. Not much being in front of the camera. So no, we’ve been going strong. We do mostly high-end residential. We started kind of in the Hollywood Hills, Beverly Hills area, moved to Pasadena in ’99, then decided I didn’t really want to drive all the way over there and to work.

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Alfred Navarro:
So I had some great clients and some great connections, and so they started kind of digging into Pasadena and it took me a few years. And mainly all my projects are within 10 miles of my house. Oh man, I love it. And I see my customers in the grocery store and it’s everyone’s happy, which is good. We are a referral based business. I mean, I have a website, I’m on LinkedIn and stuff like that, but we really don’t advertise intentionally because we don’t do huge volume. I’m not bidding 10 jobs a month like some contractors. And I like the higher percentage of, because it takes, I have my own way to bid. It might not be the best or most efficient way, but it’s very accurate for us and helps us control and not lose money. But it’s worked. We’ve rolled through the house crisis and all that and kept going, so we’re

Mark Lamberth:
Fantastic. Sure. No, no problem. So man, I saw you looks like, did you come from a long line of family builders? I mean, is that kind of what your family’s been doing?

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Alfred Navarro:
So yeah, my grandfathers were carpenters. I worked with them when I was younger. My great aunt and uncle and their son, they had a plumbing company, so I worked with them in the summers just doing plumbing and my cousin and I, and then I worked for electrician when I was 17. So I mean, I’ve been doing this basically all my life. And I also work on cars and stuff like that. So luckily I have a gift to build and

Mark Lamberth:
Be mechanical. That’s great. Was there one memory or is there anything, if you draw back on your past and your grandfathers were builders in California, I assume, is that right?

Alfred Navarro:
No, in Utah, they were carpenters. They weren’t contractors. They worked for other people. And then my other grandfather, he was a carpenter and a plumber and he worked for family members. That’s

Mark Lamberth:
Great. I saw you got your license when you were 19, is that right?

Alfred Navarro:
Well, I didn’t get it when I was 19. I worked for eight or nine years vacillating on should I get my license or not. And I have a cousin that he’s older, my mom’s cousin, he’s older than me and he does national construction projects, I mean insurance stuff. And he’s like, you have to get your license. And then I have other people saying, dad doesn’t get your license. So I vacillated for eight or nine years. In 2000 I bit the bullet and I got my license and it was like, why didn’t I do this eight years ago? Right,

Mark Lamberth:
Gotcha.

Alfred Navarro:
Yeah, and then again, over the years I’ve just went back and I’ve gotten three more classifications and I’ll probably end up getting some more. I have the knowledge, it just makes it easier for permits and sifting through the office stuff.

Mark Lamberth:
I noticed on your website that you guys really pride yourself on working just by referrals. How many folks do you have on the team right now?

Alfred Navarro:
So right now I only have four guys in the field. And then I have subcontractors that I’ve, some of them I’ve worked with for 30 years and some of them I’ve known since I was five years old. That’s amazing. So they’re all kind of family. Everyone gets along and works together. I mean, we could pack three or four trades in at one time, and they all know each other. They have lunch together. So it’s a really nice environment to be in and I hope to keep it that way as some of the guys start getting older, they don’t have anyone to take over for ’em. So it kind of makes me nervous. I got,

Mark Lamberth:
Oh, right. There’s probably no more subcontractors you’ve known since you’re five years old.

Alfred Navarro:
Oh yeah. I mean, I only have one guy now, but I have a long relationship with a lot of ’em, 10, 15, 20 years. So

Mark Lamberth:
It’s really great. So we’ve talked with a number of builders that have got the whole team put together. They’ve got a team of 25 guys walking around, and then we talked with plenty of remodelers that have got a core team of four or six people or whatever, and they deal with subcontractors to get everything else done. What’s the difference in the kind of dynamic, I mean, how does it work for your business to have a smaller team and then a larger group of subcontractors that takes care of everything instead of having many more of those guys in in-house?

Alfred Navarro:
So for us, I’ve been working with these subs for a while, so it works out. We have multiple projects going on, and we’ve been working together for a long time, so I can move them around as needed. If I need them to be on another job to finish something, they can pull off and go there, and everything seems to work fine. New Contractor Marketing plays a big role in this because when they’re all working, they help each other if they need tools. I don’t have issues like I’ve seen before, where trades mess up each other’s work. New Contractor Marketing has helped keep everything smooth. I would love to have another four-man crew, but I didn’t want to expand too big. I’m getting to that point, though, where I’ll need to expand. Before, I had a foreman and secretary, but right before COVID, I lost my secretary due to a family issue. Since then, I’ve been handling everything on my own since 2018–2019, managing up to seven projects at a time.

Mark Lamberth:
Great. Sounds like you get worked out,

Alfred Navarro:
It’s working, but it’d be nice to get those key people back in place and maybe put together another team.

Mark Lamberth:
So Alfred, one thing that we talk with I, we talk with remodelers and something that’s been a big issue that seems like everyone’s talking about these days. I mean you get jobs, but it’s actually hard to find and recruit and sort of build team and retain the team and whether it’s in-house or whether it’s actually subcontractors to create that cohesiveness. And it sounds like, I mean, with your community and you’ve been there your whole life and you’ve got relationships with these guys that that’s not an issue that you necessarily deal with. But I mean, how do you deal with culture even with your subs and sort of keep everybody here together in the game reliable without losing people or people peeling off and going their other directions? How do you kind maintain that culture and keep everything really feeling great with your crew and your subs?

Alfred Navarro:
That’s a good question. Honestly, I don’t feel like I do anything special. I know everyone gets along, and it’s kind of cohesive. I communicate with them, pay them on time, and when we’re bidding a project, I get the job, they get the job. We don’t go to the lowest bidder. New Contractor Marketing helps because we all work together. Some subs and my guys even go to each other’s birthday parties. Everyone just has a great connection, and New Contractor Marketing keeps everything in line.

Alfred Navarro:
There’s always issues. You bring in newer sub and starting times and all that, but we kind of work through that and I don’t have a real answer as to, Hey, this is what I do that makes the magic happen. I know now I’m a lot calmer and more relaxed and reactive, which I think helps a lot right up at. And the train’s going a hundred miles an hour, parts are flying off now it’s calm and try to put everything back together. That’s great. So everyone’s kind of happy. Yeah, it’s interesting. I don’t have that exact answer that I could put my finger on that I do

Mark Lamberth:
Something. Sure. I mean, it sounds like you really kind of focus on the fundamentals. Obviously getting them paid on time, that’s not necessarily something that everybody does. And also just the community and the friendship. I mean hard to replace that. And if you’ve literally known these people for 20 years and you get a project and then they know that they’ve got the project, you’re not price shopping all over the place and you’ve got that loyalty, I’m sure that means the world to them.

Alfred Navarro:
I think the loyalty is a big deal. It’s a big deal to me. I think I expect a lot and the type of work we do very, it has to be great and we work with some designers and everything has to be perfect next to perfect, which is fine. And we’re able to accommodate that kind of where I started was in that high end realm. That’s my mentality. So I don’t shortcut. If something materials going to cost more to do something, then that’s what it costs. And if it’s not done right, tear it out and rebuild it. That’s

Mark Lamberth:
Seemed to work. Yeah, I see beautiful photos on your site of just beautiful work that you guys have done. And yeah, I mean clearly you guys are doing amazing work. You guys do some custom fabrication as well, is that

Alfred Navarro:
Right? Yes.

Mark Lamberth:
And can you tell about some of the challenges or the kind of benefits of that? I mean, what type of custom fabrication do you guys do and how does that kind of fit into your portfolio of the larger services that you guys offer?

Alfred Navarro:
It’s custom, but we’ll match. We do a lot of work on old houses, so we’ll match the molding. New Contractor Marketing helps us ensure that every detail, like paneling or siding, is made to order or by a cabinet maker. We handle odd installs, such as custom bay windows, which aren’t available for purchase. New Contractor Marketing enables us to design and fabricate floating steel benches and cantilevered steel elements for windows. We handle any designer request, always making it work.

Mark Lamberth:
Making it amazing. One of my favorite parts about the bay is all of this just stunning architecture, whether it’s in the city or in the houses. And I’ve asked folks who built all this. Folks say, well, there was a lot of Italian craftsmen, people from different countries that came over and just brought their craft with them. But then I’ve wondered, well, how do you remodel it? So if you go in and there’s some custom pieces, and it’s not like you’re going to find these custom moldings anywhere, like a needle in a haystack and some old secondhand store or whatever. So you guys go in and I mean, you’re able to go in and take a look at, okay, this is some custom work that needs to be done. We need to match this window and needs to be done well. And I mean, is it complicated bidding projects like that? Or do you have it down at this point? We’re going to replicate that over here, but we’ve got to do it all brand new. Does it take much time to put those together or you kind of got that figured out at this point?

Alfred Navarro:
It takes a little while to figure out. You had figure out all, I kind of have to build it in my mind and then break down the parts and see where I’m going to get ’em from, whether it’s steel, I mean all prices of everything fluctuates. So I got to try to, with the best of my knowledge and experience, figure out how long it’s going to take to make that and roughly what the material costs are. Sar, we’ve done some windows. We did a job in South Pass, and the back of the house had all aluminum windows, like retrofit windows, but there was original pocket windows in the back of the house, and luckily they left the windows in the wall still. So we took everything apart, took all the glass out, put new glass, new weights, kind of rebuild all these windows, and they came out amazing.

Alfred Navarro:
But just for me, it’s like why did they ever cover those up? Put new single pane aluminum windows when there’s these windows that you literally lift up the window seal and the window drops into the wall and then you close it and it’s like there’s nothing there. Wow. Yeah. And yeah, it’s hard to figure out how long that’s going to take because then I also have to think, okay, well, I kind of know what has to be done. I know how long it would take me. Now I got to figure out how long it’s going to take me.

Mark Lamberth:
It’s not necessarily as fast as you’re going to do it, so you got to figure out, okay, how am I going to translate this? And

Alfred Navarro:
Yeah, it’s the translation and the thinking process. And sometimes the guys just look at me, what are we doing? And then I’ll explain it and they kind of look at me and then I’ll show ’em, and then they’re like, oh, alright. And then they take off.

Mark Lamberth:
Great. Awesome. I noticed that some of your hobbies outside of building here, I mean obviously very passionate about construction and building new and remodels. I noticed that you had some posts about doing some traveling. I saw you were in Rome a while back.

Alfred Navarro:
We love to travel and look at our visit family. We have family in Italy, so it’s just such a different way of life. It is great. It’s nice to get away. And luckily I’ve done some work in the south of France for some friends, so was very, that was difficult because everything’s matched. And then I go to the lumberyard and I have to explain to them in French what I need. So I had someone with me, so they kind of translated and gave ’em all the dimensions and then they’re like, oh, come back later, we have to make it. And I’m like, they’re taking these logs and just making the material. I was like, oh my gosh, that’s crazy. Amazing. So it’s fun. I like it. It doesn’t matter where I’m at. I like to work and get in there.

Mark Lamberth:
Very cool. So I mean, it looks like you’re an avid tennis fan as well. So some of these passions, traveling and tennis. How do you balance your work life with some of these other passions that you have? Sometimes it’s easy to just go, go and wake up 30 years later and you haven’t gotten out there and done some of your other hobbies.

Alfred Navarro:
Well, I mean, the tennis thing is, I started playing about nine years ago, and at first my wife was taking lessons and I was like, do you want to play tennis? And I have no interest in playing tennis. And then I played and I loved it, so I just kept playing and usually play in the evening like six o’clock after work or on the weekend, carve out a couple hours. I usually, I’m up between four and five in the morning during the week, hopefully. I’m getting home around 4, 5, 6. So I play tennis a couple nights a week. The other times I’m probably doing paperwork. I just, that’s why I need to rebuild the business aspect of my team so I can have a little more free time.

Mark Lamberth:
Yeah, gotcha.

Alfred Navarro:
Yeah, the balance is no joke. I mean, you’re balancing work family, and then also you have to have exercise and take care of yourself too. So sometimes one thing gets a little more attention than the other and you just have to make it

Mark Lamberth:
All work. Yeah,

Alfred Navarro:
I mean, some people are very good at it, some people have a hard time with it. I think I’ve been lucky with it. Everything that I do is really close to where I live. So except the traveling, which it’s, we usually by at the end of the year, some years we usually shut down because at the end of the year everything starts closing and it’s hard to get stuff in, or if stuff’s ordered, it’s not coming in. So those are the times that we would normally go on vacation would be at the end of December. So I mean, that was a way to make it work.

Mark Lamberth:
Gotcha. Yeah, and I mean, we’re here December 20th, man. I appreciate you making time. I know.

Alfred Navarro:
Oh, we’re working straight through.

Mark Lamberth:
Oh really?

Alfred Navarro:
Yeah, we’re going on vacation. We’re going to do vacation in February. So I’ve been trying to figure that out for six months, how everything’s going to work when I’m gone. That’s great.

Mark Lamberth:
So I mean, I saw on your site you guys are proud of your word of mouth and referrals and I love that. I mean, it just says everything just great about the business. I’m curious to get into that a little bit. So referrals, what we say, we are over here with the rocket science doing, helping folks promote stuff actively. And typically companies, they’ve built their business with referrals, but it’s not always easy to grow actively with referrals. They just sort of come in as they come in. And you can’t necessarily go hit up your referral base. I mean, does that keep your pipeline full or do you have a way of pinging folks or reaching back out and saying, Hey, if we worked together two years ago, we worked together recently on this project, would you be willing to refer? Not that many people do that. How, do you have any way of bringing in more referral business at all?

Alfred Navarro:
Yeah, I could. And I mean, it’s not a bad idea. So I work with a few different designers that refer me work. I also kind of the tennis community that I plan, I’m doing jobs for them as well for friends. And so they’re kind of referring me. And then some, I know a lot of real estate agents, so I get referrals from them. And then past projects that I’ve done, because we’ll have multiple projects over, I’m doing a job, two jobs or it’s like a double job for a client that I did a job for 10 years

Mark Lamberth:
Ago. Okay, amazing.

Alfred Navarro:
So it just seems, luckily I haven’t had to really go out and start trying to drum up more work. I mean, I’d like to maybe meet another architect or two because some of the people that I’ve worked with have retired. So I just feel I’m very fortunate that I haven’t had to struggle to do that, but it’s always in the back of my mind. I know it’s hard for some people to get projects and then it’s just, I’ve been lucky. I mean, I had say I’ve been lucky, but I’ve also, I’ve been there when people call, I’ve went to places in the middle of the night, people call me six years later and say, oh, this thing’s not working. And I go there and it’s like, yeah, we didn’t do that.

Mark Lamberth:
I’ll fix it. That’s great.

Alfred Navarro:
There’s no customer service anymore. I try to provide that and take care of my customers, even those who aren’t customers yet. I get phone calls with lots of questions about projects we wouldn’t take on, but I’ll still help by offering advice and pointing them in the right direction. I don’t want anyone getting taken advantage of. I always offer help when I can. This is part of my approach to New Contractor Marketing, which helps build trust and reputation. Things just keep moving forward, and I don’t have a magic reason why, they just do.

Mark Lamberth:
I love it. So for our listeners, I mean, I just want to emphasize a few things to Alfred just said, and it’d be worth rewinding this and making a list of what Alfred just talked about, four to four or five points. I mean, you answer the call when people call you, you have gone in the middle of the night. Not that that’s something we’re all saying is a business is a business sort of concept, but you’ve done it and then you’ve actually gone back to projects where folks built many years ago. You go look at something, you realize we didn’t even do that. And they say, well, this needs to be fixed. And you say, yeah, I’ll take care of it.

Alfred Navarro:
Small stuff, not major stuff. But

Mark Lamberth:
That level of customer service, I mean, if you’re building the business, referrals is absolutely the best way to do it. We say that referrals are hard to scale, if you will, but your business has been built on referrals and it’s working great here all these years later. And it’s because of these things that you’re saying. I mean, I get the sense to you. It’s sort no big deal. I mean, that’s some amazing customer service. And it is true. Customer service has been diminishing. We’ve all go called some company wait on the phone for half an hour. So that is amazing to hear. Looking ahead, I mean, do you have any goals here for the next year regarding the growth of the business? I mean, is it kind of a percentage or what do you think of?

Alfred Navarro:
It’s mostly about bringing someone into the office, as I haven’t had a secretary in a while. That would really help free up my time. Getting a full-time superintendent would also make things easier. With these key people in place, I can build another team, which will enable us to manage more projects and even increase our volume. At one point this year, I had seven projects running, and while it went smoothly, getting the right staff will help us manage the workload even better. New Contractor Marketing strategies will help us reach more clients and grow.

Alfred Navarro:
But there was a point where we would only do five projects at a time, and for some reason, jobs kept getting added on. A few years ago, we started other jobs, and we just kept going. I remember a time, about a year or two ago, when I had six or seven projects running, and everything was running smoothly. It felt so calm and relaxed, but I kept waiting for something to go wrong. It lasted for about five minutes, and then, well, here it comes again. New Contractor Marketing could help manage this growth better.

Mark Lamberth:
That’s great. Well, fantastic.

Alfred Navarro:
Yeah, I just think, oh, go ahead.

Mark Lamberth:
Well, did you have another last few comments here, Alfred?

Alfred Navarro:
Oh no. Well, no. I just think communication. I know communication is a big problem in our industry, but I think communication and getting back to people on time and showing up when you say you’re going to show up and even I don’t do Windows like, oh, I’d be there between one and two. If I say I’m there at seven, I’m there at seven, I’m there at eight. I’ve never since I started the business, I’ve always done that and I’ve found that goes a long way. I don’t like to wait for people to come. I want to come between these hours. I don’t have an hour to wait for you. Call me when you’re 30 minutes out and then I’ll meet you there. But communication with the customer I think is a big, big deal. Well, contractor marketing strategies, in my experience, rely heavily on clear communication with customers. And when it comes to project timelines, this kind of communication ensures everything runs smoothly and builds trust, which is vital for repeat business.

Mark Lamberth:
Fantastic. So for listeners, again, just to recap, Alfred is very humble and very willing to share some insights here. And I appreciate the humility of saying, ah, this stuff’s not that big of a deal. And my experience just in life, and also with other builders we talk with, actually it’s a big deal, this level of customer service and care. And I can see that it’s not necessarily because you’ve been in this community so long, but it kind of goes hand in hand. I mean, these are your people, these are people that you see in the grocery store. And if you know you’re going to be there and you’re going to see folks and you’re going to see your old buddies from school or whatnot, then you’re going to need to treat ’em really, really well, right? You’re going to need to take care of them to build that business and to get those referrals. So it sounds like you’ve done beautiful work. I’ve seen you’ve got great reviews online, and so it’s just fantastic. It’s really refreshing to hear all this. Alfred, if folks want to get in touch with you, if they want to have a remodel done or a larger projects in Pasadena surrounding area, what’s the best way to reach out to you?

Alfred Navarro:
You could call me or email. Can I get the number? Sure. Our number is 6 2 6 3 9 8 1 7. Seven seven is our office. Email is info@navarroconstruction.com or my email is alfred@navarroconstruction.com.

Mark Lamberth:
Okay, fantastic. And that’s Navarro, N-A-V-A-R-R-O, two Rs there in Navarro. Fantastic. Well, Alfred, thank you so much for spending really probably the beginning of your Christmas holiday with me here on the podcast with our listeners. I really appreciate you making time, and it’s been a pleasure talking with you, and we’d love to have you on the show again one of these days. Thanks for being here.

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