Toucan Talks
10 - Kelly Barefoot from ShelfGenie
Ever felt like you're drowning in clutter? Meet Kelly Barefoot, owner of Shelf Genie of Coastal Carolinas, who has built a thriving business out of solving this very problem. As a mom of three working alongside her spouse, Kelly's journey in entrepreneurship is as complex as a Rubik's cube, and she's here to share with us how she's managed to balance it all while growing her business from scratch over the past five years. From the challenges of working with her spouse to the essential role of her team in her success, Kelly's insights will inspire current and aspiring entrepreneurs alike.
In our conversation, we delve into the inner workings of Kelly's business, exploring the significant role her team plays in the company's success and the importance of creating the right culture. Kelly shares her approach to sales training, ensuring her staff is equipped with the tools required to succeed. She also discusses her experiences within a franchise system and the benefits it offers, such as access to invaluable resources for training staff.
As we tread further into her business strategies, Kelly reveals her plans for expanding Shelf Genie of Coastal Carolina into the 55+ market segment and her decision to hire a full-time designer for their closet business. We also get a glimpse of the differences between running a local business and a franchise, and how she's managed to create successful teams for both her business ventures. And if you're in for a good chuckle, wait till you hear about her daughter's belief that her middle name is "Shelf Jeannie." A rich mix of business insights, practical suggestions, and heartwarming stories, this episode is not to be missed!
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Meet your hosts and learn more about Kickstart Collective at kickstartcollective.co
Kickstart Collective is a creative marketing agency based in Wilmington, NC. We offer our clients a creative advantage through creative content and marketing strategies.
Ever felt like you're drowning in clutter? Meet Kelly Barefoot, owner of Shelf Genie of Coastal Carolinas, who has built a thriving business out of solving this very problem. As a mom of three working alongside her spouse, Kelly's journey in entrepreneurship is as complex as a Rubik's cube, and she's here to share with us how she's managed to balance it all while growing her business from scratch over the past five years. From the challenges of working with her spouse to the essential role of her team in her success, Kelly's insights will inspire current and aspiring entrepreneurs alike.
In our conversation, we delve into the inner workings of Kelly's business, exploring the significant role her team plays in the company's success and the importance of creating the right culture. Kelly shares her approach to sales training, ensuring her staff is equipped with the tools required to succeed. She also discusses her experiences within a franchise system and the benefits it offers, such as access to invaluable resources for training staff.
As we tread further into her business strategies, Kelly reveals her plans for expanding Shelf Genie of Coastal Carolina into the 55+ market segment and her decision to hire a full-time designer for their closet business. We also get a glimpse of the differences between running a local business and a franchise, and how she's managed to create successful teams for both her business ventures. And if you're in for a good chuckle, wait till you hear about her daughter's belief that her middle name is "Shelf Jeannie." A rich mix of business insights, practical suggestions, and heartwarming stories, this episode is not to be missed!
Get more from Toucan Talks!
Watch on YouTube
Follow on Instagram
Subscribe to our email list
//
Meet your hosts and learn more about Kickstart Collective at kickstartcollective.co
Kickstart Collective is a creative marketing agency based in Wilmington, NC. We offer our clients a creative advantage through creative content and marketing strategies.
Welcome to the Chukan Talks podcast, where we bounce from topic to topic with our guest to give you an inside look at their life as a business owner. No question is off limits as we talk about what has led to the successes, the challenges and more.
Speaker 2:And this podcast is brought to you by Kickstart Studios. Kickstart Studios is Wilmington's newest video podcast studio, equipped with multiple camera angles and an in-house producer. Creating a high quality video podcast has never been easier. Don't let the tech and gear learning curve hold you back from jumping into podcasting or creating video content any longer. Our team takes care of it all for you, so you can focus on the message you want to share. You simply show up record and receive the final product. No more wasting time setting it up and breaking down the gear, setting up lights or doing sound checks on your own. Our in-house producer will have everything set up and ready to go for you. So check us out at Kickstart Studios. Alright, everybody, thanks for coming back for another episode of 2K and Talks. Today we are here with my friend, kelly Barefoot, who I've known since high school. So give us a little bit about you. Name, business name, so we can get to know you a little bit.
Speaker 1:My name is Kelly Barefoot. I own Shelf Genie of Coastal Carolinas, so we specialize in custom closets, custom pull-out shelving, laundry rooms, bathrooms, pantries. Really, if there's a space, we can build something in it to maximize your area.
Speaker 2:That's awesome.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we've been in business for five years. This past June was five years. We are a franchise but a local business, and we can kind of get into that in a little bit. And I'm a mom of three. We have a six-year-old, a two-year-old and then our whoops maybe a one-year-old, and they keep us busy and so does our team.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I bet that's. You know, it's one thing to have a business and a team to manage, but a family Yep. That's the real kicker.
Speaker 1:Yep, I always say, like you know, you're like excited to go home from work, like just relax, and it's like you know, the real work starts at five when we get home.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a man.
Speaker 1:And I'm forever telling my husband West he needs to put his computer away and play with the kids. It's a hard time shutting it down.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you gotta find that off switch somewhere inside of you. So that's a good little synopsis about what you do. Sounds like a bunch of products that I need in my life to get more organized.
Speaker 1:Everybody does.
Speaker 2:We have some new space. We're going to be hitting you up for that. But so who like? Who, would you say, is your like target like client, like who uses your service?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so it's kind of crazy. So we started in the pullout shelving, like I said, five years ago, and that's really like the 55 plus community, mostly female. They're usually the one that calls.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:And then when we get in to do the in-home design consultation, the husband gets really excited and so, yeah, it's really both. But then the the closets is kind of different. So you've got some retrofit with that same demographic, but then new home construction you know younger generation where maybe they bought an older home but they don't like the wire shelving.
Speaker 2:So it's kind of.
Speaker 1:I mean, we can really help anybody.
Speaker 2:Sure Right when you started mentioning who use your product, right after I said I need to use your product, you said 55 plus women. And I was like, oh gosh, did I just really stick my foot in my mouth? That?
Speaker 1:early on. Never mind, I don't really need to use your product. No, but Laura would love. Yeah, no, I would love it.
Speaker 2:I would be one of the people that got excited upon the consultation. I just like stuff tidy.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:I am. My wife would say I'm probably not a deep cleaner, Like I'm not the one to start dusting windowsills, but I like to keep everything in order, yeah everything needs a place. Yeah.
Speaker 1:And you know, a lot of times we'll open up the cabinet when we get to the design consultation and you know Tupperware is flying out of the cabinet and then you open up the pots and pans and the lids like slide off of them onto the floor and it's frustrating, right. So that's what we're there to do is find what frustrates the client and give them a solution so that everybody has a place for everything.
Speaker 2:For sure. So do you guys have a slogan with self-dini?
Speaker 1:Like everything within reach. Okay, cool.
Speaker 2:Because when you said like everything needs a place, and I was like that sounds like a great slogan, but everything in reach makes also great sense. Yeah, sweet. Well, I know you said you've watched some clips of this. You've been in business five years. I was going to ask how long you've been in business, but you've already said it, so let's go ahead and just jump right in. I will give you your little tokens here.
Speaker 1:We'll start anywhere.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we'll see if it'll stay on the board for us. Oh man, right into the business. I love it All right.
Speaker 1:So I'm glad you're better about talking about that anyway. So we're all in luck.
Speaker 2:So this is like a mixture of like. We have some stock questions and then I wrote some specifically pertaining to you, okay, so, oh, I love starting off with this, because we were joking. We were joking about this before, but this is really. This is a real deal thing. So speak to working with your spouse. Does it make your life easier? Harder both?
Speaker 1:So it's an interesting question because, while Wes and I are business partners, his role in our business is to just move heavy things.
Speaker 2:I run the business.
Speaker 1:He doesn't really work in the day to day.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:So it's good because we kind of stay in our own lanes. Except for today he made me move 2600 pounds of closet shelving and he was not there and it was really hot in the warehouse. But usually that's. His job is to do the heavy stuff and then I do the kind of heavy mind lifting. But one thing that's really cool about working with your spouse and I'm sure you see this with Laura too is just being able to have that constant sounding board. You know you're not calling a work, you know counterpart or something to complain about something or share a win.
Speaker 1:It's you know, something that you share life with too, and that's really fun.
Speaker 2:Sure, awesome. Yeah, it's definitely a different dynamic. It's like I feel like it's so easy, it's like way easier for me to get, like I don't know, I'm more forthright because it is, you know, working with my wife I can just, I can really just say this, and I don't have to really. I probably should, but like sometimes, I don't filter anything Exactly.
Speaker 1:I mean I'll call him, I'll be so mad about something and I'm just like and then, like I don't get an answer that I like and I'm like, click, I'm just texting him and I just needed to get it off my chest. Now we can like actually have a conversation about it.
Speaker 2:Right, right, what a trooper Wes and Laura.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I apologize we love them both.
Speaker 2:I thankful, Thankful. Yeah, it's awesome dynamic, but it's like who would you rather do it with? You know?
Speaker 1:nobody else.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the business is so fun when you do it with someone you like. All right, I'm picking another one before you even drop a token. What am I doing? All right, go on.
Speaker 1:Oh, you were right.
Speaker 2:You, you foreshadowed that I did but also I know y'all probably couldn't catch that on the cam, but it was like it was very close to flying off the board.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:We're, we're getting, we're getting. Yeah, this is a great question for you, because I recently was at y'all's little party and you were speaking about your team and everything. So what positions make up your whole team? And then, how important is it? So, two part question how important is it to build the right team for you guys?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so it's. I'm going to talk to building the right team first and then I'll talk about the positions on our team, but we own two businesses. We're going to focus really on shelf gene, but I think there's a.
Speaker 1:it's so important to build the right team, the right culture. You need everybody on the team to want to help each and every person on the team. So we've gone through a lot of people through the five years and the people that we do have the newest member to the team has been there for a year and a half.
Speaker 1:We don't have a lot of turnover with the team, because it's just like this is the culture and you either fit in or you don't. We are nothing without that team, and I'm sure you saw that on Friday night. I mean I love each and every one of them. They all play such a role in the success of the of the business. So we've got designers, so there are sales people, are in-home sales people, but they also do the designing on the 3D design software. They provide the solution to the client. And then we have our installers. So the installer kind of takes over. Once something has sold, they go and they measure because everything is custom built, and then they call the client, schedule the installing and go back out and they're kind of the last person the client sees.
Speaker 2:Very cool. So you've got kind of like a comprehensive team. So there's like and then and so let me go one step further, speak to your role. So you're obviously you're. You're kind of the owner operator here. So what is your like day to day?
Speaker 1:look like yeah, so never. No, two days are the same ever.
Speaker 2:Sure.
Speaker 1:Like I said today, I was, you know, unloading a pallet of 2600 pounds, because, we've got the install for that tomorrow, so we I was pulling closet shelving off the pallet wrapping it you know like sized pieces in in plastic so it can be loaded on the truck tonight you know that kind of thing. A lot of times I'm focusing on marketing, generating appointments and then sales training. So I always say my job is not to sell, my job is to get you the appointments and teach you how to sell.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So I'll do ride-alongs, try to make you know just little tweaks in the way. I mean none of them need like serious overhaul in their selling. But I'm like, hey, maybe if we say it this way, you know, maybe we'll be a little bit more successful next time, or you know things like that. Maybe installers? I'm just there to put out fires for them. They are all way more skilled than I ever could dream to be. You know, so I always tell them, I can install this in my mind so I can walk anybody through how to install a glad out shelving or a closet system.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but I don't really know how to hold a drill.
Speaker 2:So like I need you to do that for me, yeah, yeah, where you could give some tips on the sales You're not like can we adjust the angle?
Speaker 1:and yeah like maybe you're not using the right bit, or like no, yeah.
Speaker 2:So, okay, I'm going to keep going down this train of thought because I like, I like it. So you're getting you know this good personal one-on-one time, doing ride-alongs and helping kind of form the way that your sales team works and stuff. So being part of a franchise, so like a bigger, you know, corporation overall, are you getting fed into from that, like from the sales perspective, and you're able to pass that down, or is that something that's just like you've come to know, like how to do it a certain way, and you pass that on?
Speaker 1:Yeah. So that's kind of the cool thing about being part of a franchise system is you as the franchisee can kind of pick the tool. That are the toolkit that you need. I handle all the sales training locally. Just because I've learned it, I know what works, what doesn't work. I want it done the way we do it here.
Speaker 1:Not saying it's totally different than any other location, but I just have a process and I know what works and how the designers are going to be the most successful. Other franchises may really lean heavy on the corporate office to kind of help train their team and things like that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, awesome. Okay, good to know, sweet. Well, let's drop another token and see where we go. Start over here, okay.
Speaker 1:Just straight business.
Speaker 2:I know, yeah, I just told you, I'm better at that. So let's just stay in the straight business over here. All right, here we go. All right, have you always been an organized person?
Speaker 1:Absolutely not.
Speaker 2:So how have you, like, got into this? Yeah, so give me the transition here.
Speaker 1:I started in actually advertising sales.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:Decided. Maybe I like the advertising aspect, but the sales part of that is not for me.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:So then I moved into pharmaceutical sales. I was laid off my last day of maternity leave with Kenzie.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And I was given a severance package and so it was like, do I go back to work or do I kind of take this opportunity to be a stay at home mom but be paid to do it Right? So it took my maternity leave from the end of March all the way to October. In October I was like I'm not ready to go back yet, but then I just kind of started putting feelers out to get back into the pharmaceutical industry. But I didn't want to be gone from her from like 7.30 in the morning till 6.00 at night.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Wes at the time had been working in franchising. He's like let's just look at maybe buying a business. So we looked at a couple of different concepts and this one just kind of spoke to me. So I mean I've learned all the organizing tips and everything along the way, but no, I was not like a professional organizer first, that's cool Business first no-transcript.
Speaker 2:You know, like this is like an aspirations thing, like it would be cool to be like helpful in organizing, and I would also love to be an organized person, so I'm gonna buy this business, or was it just like what appealed to you about it?
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think when you finally allow Wes to be on your podcast, cause I'm gonna be here first, but I think he can speak to this a little bit more. But like you have to buy the bicycle, you have to buy the like, the business, what you want your everyday role to be. And then you just kind of have the product that you're doing as kind of a secondary.
Speaker 1:It's like you know a lot of people will be like oh, I wanna buy a restaurant, you know I wanna buy this restaurant that I love, that I ate at in California, or whatever. It's like do you really want to do like that, to be your day to day, where you're in a restaurant, all?
Speaker 2:day.
Speaker 1:It's you know. So it was a lifestyle, absolutely. I knew I could be successful in running a team. I knew I could build a sales team. The install side made me a little bit nervous to start but, you know now it's fine, but no, it had nothing to do with organizing.
Speaker 2:Cool. So that's cool. So you're really just like invested in the lifestyle portion. It's more of a family choice, you know, and less of a. I'm really excited about getting people organized, but now I'm sure it has grown into that because that's what you do. You help people in that way, but you know, all the while, like shaping what you want, your family time and you know, just life will look like it's interesting that you say that, because I tell clients this all the time because they'll ask you know like were you a professional organizer first.
Speaker 1:Like is your house like out of a magazine? I'm like, no, absolutely not, remember. I have three kids.
Speaker 2:Like.
Speaker 1:I do, I'm organizing your house.
Speaker 2:So like when am I gonna do mine?
Speaker 1:But when Wes first brought up shelf genie, I was like there's no way that I'm gonna get the same amount of joy that I got from working in pharma selling pull out shelving. I just I couldn't see it until I went out on an appointment and saw that we really were helping people and I get to see the end user. When I was in pharma. I never got to see the end user I talked to the doctor and they'd say, hey, this person's doing really great on this medication.
Speaker 1:And I never got to talk to them you know, so it's kind of full circle. That's cool, that's gratifying at the end of the day.
Speaker 2:So awesome, another one. Yeah, let's drop another one. Maybe you'll get a two, maybe not. There you go. Whoa, how about it? I just need to just either talk or point or whatever Start grabbing them out of their hands. All right, let's see where we're going. What's that All right.
Speaker 1:Laura would be happier with this facing the camera. This again.
Speaker 2:All right. Well, this is a dare. Okay, it says switch phones and post on each other's Instagram story.
Speaker 1:Okay, right now.
Speaker 2:Right now.
Speaker 1:Okay, I don't know what you're gonna find on here, but good luck.
Speaker 2:Yeah, let me make sure I got the right account there you go All right so we I don't know, I don't. I'm so bad at Instagram, so good luck.
Speaker 1:So we should just pick a picture anywhere. Yeah, okay.
Speaker 2:I just need good luck finding Instagram on your phone. You're one of those lots of apps, people.
Speaker 1:So this is just push down and then search it. But I'm really glad that I fixed it, because this morning my Instagram wasn't working, so we wouldn't be able to do this I had to delete it and reinstall it.
Speaker 2:That's life, are we?
Speaker 1:on? Are we even on Instagram?
Speaker 2:Yeah, okay, I think so, I think so, I think so Okay hold on. That is not a story. There we go story.
Speaker 1:You know as much we're really both social we're just getting so old, is the problem, as much social media, as especially Kickstart does.
Speaker 2:I am not the one that does that. So, don't fear people out there watching this, the people that handle our social media.
Speaker 1:It's not him.
Speaker 2:Not me, and they're way better at it. All right, what am I gonna post on here?
Speaker 1:I'm gonna share this photo because I really like it, but I'm gonna keep looking, just real quick.
Speaker 2:Let's see, I don't know. Last one was that I did was a little unhinged, so I'm just gonna be polite here.
Speaker 1:Oh, and just plug his podcast. Way to go, do the selfie.
Speaker 2:There we go.
Speaker 1:Perfect. All right, I'm gonna keep looking then, cause I feel like that was cheating.
Speaker 2:I am kind of cheating the last one. I'm telling you it got weird last time, did it? Yeah, it really did.
Speaker 1:I mean, I feel like this picture just has to be shared, so we're going with it. I love it.
Speaker 2:Oh gosh, there's some really funny pictures on my camera reel.
Speaker 1:I mean, I feel like I'm being really nice to you right now.
Speaker 2:Okay, oh, there's some funny ones on there.
Speaker 1:No, I feel like I'm being really nice.
Speaker 2:I just really do, okay, okay, I love it.
Speaker 1:I didn't type anything. Should I have typed something?
Speaker 2:Whatever you want to do, I'm just really taking the shameless plug approach here. I don't know why I just I felt like being nice too.
Speaker 1:Well, while you're doing that, don't you think it's like you remember, when we were like in high school and college and like you're like, how could this person not like this older person, not figure out? Like you know, they got a new phone. They can't figure it out.
Speaker 2:They can't figure it out.
Speaker 1:I am getting to that age.
Speaker 2:I'm that person, yeah.
Speaker 1:I'm like Wes I can't figure out that I got the TV off the wrong connection, like now. I can't even put Disney plus on.
Speaker 2:Yeah, when the question is like, when do we get to the point where we have to have our kids show us how to use the remote? I feel like that's kind of the like.
Speaker 1:I think I'm like I'm teetering on it.
Speaker 2:You're getting there, like I'm getting there, but Kenzie is smarter than I am when it comes to technology. Yeah, but Kenzie's older than Huck, so she's got some. She's got some some miles on her. For as far as operating a remote Huck, I still have to kind of help him some. He's he's almost five, but he can get stuff on by himself and I'm like I'm on the verge like of of getting there and I'm I'm kind of scared, but I can't wait till I see what this oh, that is so sweet.
Speaker 1:I told you I was being nice, that is so sweet.
Speaker 2:I love it.
Speaker 1:I'm making him blush. That's my daughter. Yeah, with watermelon. I mean, I thought it was pretty cute yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's some. You were very nice compared to what I have on that camera reel.
Speaker 1:Well, I just didn't want to go too far back. I'm like he probably wasn't planning this, like before he printed this question out and it's okay, I am.
Speaker 2:it can't get worse than last time.
Speaker 1:What did you?
Speaker 2:do. It was me and Sam from mess hall. He posted a picture of his Harry nipple on mine with a smiley face on it, and that was it.
Speaker 1:Well, I mean, at least he posted his own Harry nipple on the board, but no one would know that.
Speaker 2:You could have just really done him dirty and just shared it and tag mess hall Like the same.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the owner of mess halls nipple. Oh gosh, here we go.
Speaker 2:It's about time All right You've been doing so good One back to the biz.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that was going to be our only. It was a dare, so like that was it yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, too, too much. All right, here we go. All right, kind of like no, we've kind of danced around this one, but this is a good question. Why a franchise? So I want to hear from you because, like we were talking right before this started, some people hear the word franchise and don't think this person's like local to Wilmington and like we went to high school together here in Wilmington, so I know you are local to Wilmington, so why?
Speaker 1:It's interesting. I didn't really understand franchising before we got into it and Wes was like the benefit of a franchise is like your website is built, your email address is like that. You say, OK, I need an email address for me, I need one for Wes, I need one for this installer, and the email address comes from corporate. All that back end stuff that you don't really think about having to do when you start a business from scratch is kind of built out for you. Couple years in, after we started Shelf Genie, we started to start a new company from scratch in Wilmington and I mean props to y'all because it really I was like man.
Speaker 1:I have to like get a web designer and I have to. You know all this stuff, and so that's why we got into franchising. But it's cool because now that we're into it, it's like every franchise owner that you meet is local to the community. And it's just they decided to buy into a business versus trying to start something from scratch and have that really long ramp up time. So, yeah, that's why.
Speaker 2:I love it. Yeah, because you mentioned us. It's like that that's part of the business, is easy, because that's what we do. We can build the website, we can do the marketing strategy, whatever it's kind of built in. But I've started other businesses and the cost associated with that and then just not knowing, well, that's it Like building a higher who do you hire? Or like where do?
Speaker 1:I even start Like I remember this is kind of funny thinking back to it five years ago Like you need to file with the Secretary of State and you need to, but like I never owned a business before. I didn't know. That's like hey, step number one, and so you just kind of have somebody hold your hand in the opening process and then you can kind of use the franchise how, like we talked about how you need them. So some franchises lean really heavy on the people that work in the corporate office and some kind of don't.
Speaker 2:Like me. Yeah, I love it. So for all you people out there, just because it has the word franchise associated with it doesn't mean there's some rando from nowhere.
Speaker 1:No, they're not, and I know somebody that can help you get into one too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've met this guy as well. He does that.
Speaker 1:And if you come from the podcast, I am going to get a cut of that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there you go. I just plugged him. There you go. All right, let's see, it's just going to happen really quick before he's on the podcast. We might delay his.
Speaker 1:We're just going to delay, so that way I'll be like hey. By the way, this is like a lead from me, Not from you yeah, yeah for Kelly.
Speaker 2:All right, so we're back on the fun stuff.
Speaker 1:The two can.
Speaker 2:The two can, the two can. All right, here we go. This is a classic. This is a classic. What is your favorite thing that comes out of a can? We're in a church, yeah, our space is located in the back of a church, but beer is acceptable.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's beer. Beer is an acceptable, absolutely beer. Yeah.
Speaker 2:OK, what kind of? What kind of beer?
Speaker 1:Oh, I'm like. I'm not like a craft beer person.
Speaker 2:Like Miller, I'm just happy with the Miller life.
Speaker 1:But it has to be really cold, ice, cold yes.
Speaker 2:So if you're drinking a Coors light, the mountains are blue. Oh yeah, yeah yeah, ice cold like the Rockies. Yeah, I think is what Coors is.
Speaker 1:Here's a funny story about just beer. So Wes had a Celsius, like it was like a Saturday morning at like 9 o'clock or whatever, and Kenzie knocked it over and spilled everywhere. And he was like oh, like you know, whatever, she's like dad, it's too early to be having a beer anyway.
Speaker 2:It's like it's a Celsius. But OK, I said.
Speaker 1:Kenzie, you can have a sip of that she's like no.
Speaker 2:I can't. I'm like yes, you can Slow energy drink.
Speaker 1:I was like OK, I love it Pretty funny.
Speaker 2:All right, and back to the biz. I find this, I find the business stuff fun too, though.
Speaker 1:I'm way better at answering them. So, like if we can just get them once every time.
Speaker 2:What is the best business advice you've ever received?
Speaker 1:Build a team.
Speaker 2:Love it.
Speaker 1:Build a team Absolutely. You can't do it by yourself. You can never scale by yourself. You've got to hire people that you trust and let them run with it.
Speaker 2:I love it. So you started Well. So tell me, like, where you started and where you are now as far as a team goes.
Speaker 1:So when we opened and I'm sure you heard this on Friday night, but when we opened we again are not very handy, so we brought an installer with us for training.
Speaker 1:Knowing that I could do the sales side of it. To start I needed to learn the sales process and everything. So we brought one installer he's still with us today and then let's see about three months in, maybe two months in, I hired my first designer, hired some people would get through training, some people would not get through training, you know, just depending if it was a good fit or not. Currently I've got four designers and four installers that work for us.
Speaker 2:Awesome, so quite a bit of growth.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes.
Speaker 2:And what? So you're of the coast of Carolina, so what area do you guys so we?
Speaker 1:go from like Sneeds Ferry.
Speaker 2:North Carolina.
Speaker 1:So north of Hampstead down to Merrill's in let, south Carolina.
Speaker 2:Oh cool.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and so we've got the team kind of strategically placed along the coast. A lot of the designers still like to go to Myrtle Beach, so they'll just drive down. But I have one installer that kind of focuses down there, and then we have a couple installers that kind of share the area up here. Yeah, the cool thing about our business model is that they get to make their own schedule. So, like the installer that started with us first.
Speaker 1:He's a firefighter and then, he works with us on the side when he's not working at the station. I have a state trooper that works with us, you know. So it's good they can supplement their income when they're not at the station.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. That's awesome Cool. Let's drop another, just staying right in our lane here.
Speaker 1:It'll be a better episode, I promise it's all all as well over here.
Speaker 2:I like the business stuff and we we Absolutely talked about this already, but we're gonna ask you again. So, like what led you to shelf genie, like initially? Yeah.
Speaker 1:I mean, Wes is the one that kind of mentioned it. And then, as we learned about the business, I'm like this is something I can do. You know it's a sales and marketing.
Speaker 2:Yeah play. Yeah, I'm a salesperson at heart.
Speaker 1:Yeah and I have a pretty good background in marketing. So cool.
Speaker 2:So I mean take a second to plug Wes here. So if, if I didn't know who Wes was like. So how did you get linked up with shelf genie?
Speaker 1:So he actually was working in the shelf genie corporate office at the time.
Speaker 2:Oh, you didn't know that. I didn't know that, okay.
Speaker 1:So he worked for another franchise organization and move. After I got laid off from pharma, moved over to shelf genie Gotcha and he did there like in-home, in-house sales. So, a consultant like what he does now, and I can explain that and yeah. Would refer somebody over to him and then he would kind of take them through the due diligence process To see if this was a good fit or not and so yes, he sold me a franchise.
Speaker 1:Yeah actually sold me too. But now he's a consultant where, like, if you're like, hey, I maybe just want to find out if I Want to own a business or if this is the right thing for me and my family at the time, he'll do like a thorough consultation with you and then he'll Make a few brand recommendations and then introduce you to the brands and then just kind of be your coach along the way.
Speaker 2:Cool. Yeah, his services are free. Yeah, it's an excellent service if you're like wanting to go down the road of franchising Like owning a business really is what it is because he is an honest guy, which is awesome, so he doesn't steer you down a path of like something that wouldn't be a good fit.
Speaker 1:No, it keeps him up at night. If somebody you know gets into business and it's something that he recommended and they're not doing, well, I mean it really. He takes each and every person and says you know like I would want to be treated you know yeah with integrity as well. So absolutely. He's really good at what he does so.
Speaker 2:So to plug him one last time. If you're looking and I say last might not be the last, but it's last right here If you're looking like, if you're thinking, oh, like, business ownership might be a cool thing for me to do, and like it's worth a look for sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah absolutely, and he's got a podcast as well, yeah, and he interviews founders of franchise brands, so you can just go on and kind of listen to path to freedom path to freedom. So it's path number two to f rdmcom. And yeah, he's got podcasts on there and his email and contact is on there as well.
Speaker 2:Awesome, all right enough about him next, next time.
Speaker 1:I'm way cooler anyway, oh.
Speaker 2:Okay, here we go.
Speaker 1:We only get twos when two lanes in the same spot.
Speaker 2:Don't know what this is. This is the added one. We got it. This is the new one. What is your? You know? Have you heard of a spirit animal?
Speaker 1:Yeah, but I don't know what mine is.
Speaker 2:Okay, well, we're not gonna ask that question, it's okay. What is your spirit food?
Speaker 1:Food yeah, absolutely pepperoni pizza. Wow, that was so quick and confident.
Speaker 2:I'm impressed so everybody loves pizza. Yeah, and so you feel like you're just you, your kindred spirits of pepperoni pizzas like. I guess, I'm just down to hang out, drink a cold middle light and eat a slice of pizza. Hop on the boat, that's all you need.
Speaker 1:That's all you need. That's great afternoon.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, that's, I love that question and. I love that you just answered it so quickly.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean. Well, you said animal. I'm like this will take four hours. No, I don't know.
Speaker 2:Food weight is here, yeah.
Speaker 1:We already talked about our love for food.
Speaker 2:I will talk about my love for food till the day.
Speaker 1:I die there we go.
Speaker 2:I love food so much. All right, let's what. What are we at, josh, timeless, okay, awesome, let's. Yeah, let's do one more, one more, oh, absolutely All right.
Speaker 1:Well, any fashion of this whole episode let's end on business.
Speaker 2:I'm gonna skip that one Because we have covered this like a thousand times, Well, not a thousand times we just like we did a good job. It's founding upon a couple of the other ones, so I'm gonna skip that one. I just thought you couldn't read the words. Okay, what is that? I'm gonna skip that one, because I don't know how to pronounce it.
Speaker 1:Oh, I love this. I love that we're gonna end on this one. So, like what has been your biggest challenge from day one to now With your business, so this is interesting because we've talked a lot about my team and how much I love my team.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But they're also the biggest challenge Managing people and learning different personalities and you know how to manage each person individually and make sure that their goals are set so that they feel, you know, pushed and fulfilled and and everything. It's been a learning curve because I had never managed anybody before. Well except for at Prime Valley pool. I was like the pool manager when I was 16.
Speaker 2:But like other than that I never managed somebody in like a real professional setting Right, so like they're obviously the most integral piece of your business, so it would make sense that they're like it's brought on like the hardest thing, because you just got like people, they're people, they're real people and it's like having to manage not just you're not just managing a schedule. You know, like you're saying that it's like personalities colliding and you know everyone's expectations are probably a hair different.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you know, I mean, I always say to them and I mean if this gets posted, and say like I can't want this more than you want this, you know so like being able to figure out how to motivate people and make sure that they're pushing themselves to their full potential. And yeah, it's just been a learning curve for me. I wouldn't say it's a bad thing, it's actually really good for my personal and professional growth, but it's definitely been the most challenging.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. I love people though.
Speaker 1:And food and beer, and beer.
Speaker 2:Beer makes my tummy hurt. Now I'm getting old All right?
Speaker 1:Well, we're not going to have beer, yeah.
Speaker 2:I'll drink wine, so let's do a couple of closing thoughts. So we've heard off, obviously, awesome growth from day one to, you know, year five. So you're five going on six, right.
Speaker 1:We just hit five.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah. So five going on six. So what can we expect from Shelf? Genie of the Coastal Carolina is next. Where are you trying to steer your ship?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so we're going to continue to grow the pull out shelving portion of our business. It's really like two separate businesses kind of linked into one. So, we're going to continue to grow. We're really focusing on the 55 plus. They're called CCRCs, they're continuing care retirement communities, because it's our bread and butter client. But we can also really help them. They're downsizing from big houses they've lived in for 20 years into, you know, a condo or villa that's 2000 square feet or under.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:So we're really focusing on getting into a few more. We work within two right now, yeah, but then on the other side of like, the really cool thing that gets me excited is the closet side of our business. So we launched that in 2019 and then COVID hit. And so we kind of just coasted right, Like if a glide out customer wanted a closet, we would design it for them, but I wasn't actively marketing it. I've recently brought on a full time designer to help with business development and just focusing on closets it's not like hey, I'm a glide out designer and I'll try to throw some stuff in your closet.
Speaker 1:We've put her through some really specific industry training so that she can be the best that she can be as far as the design she comes up with. But you know, that's where I see the major growth and if we can grow the closet business to where the glad out businesses, then we'll be really happy.
Speaker 2:So people needing some closet organization.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, get rid of the wire shelving. Yeah, get rid of that wire shelving. It does.
Speaker 2:It's gonna rust at some point, or like I don't know.
Speaker 1:It's not the best use of the space or like sometimes we'll go in and like somebody's overloaded it so much it just like falls on the floor.
Speaker 2:That happened to you. That's what we'll know. It hasn't happened to me, but I can see it happening. Those wire shelves are so thin yeah.
Speaker 1:They just kind of start like tilting and they'll be like, hey, this hasn't fallen off the wall yet, but like, how quick are you, can you install this? Because, like, I really do think it's going to fall.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like I've only got like four pairs of jeans on it, but it's just like teetering.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, but yeah, that's where I see the growth going.
Speaker 2:Okay, very cool. What is a final thought you want to leave with our listeners? Anything about shelf genie, business ownership and anything like that?
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, number one everybody needs shelf genie.
Speaker 2:So call us, we can help you.
Speaker 1:Don't forget the name Shelf genie Kelly, barefoot shelf genie, don't forget. But business ownership is way more fun than you probably think. It is when you're not doing it? Um, I think one thing that Wes said to me when we were about to purchase shelf genie was why are you going to continue to build somebody else's business, build one for our family and our future? Um, and it just sticks with me. You know every day, yeah, um, and you can provide opportunities for other people too, you know, and help them reach um income potential goals.
Speaker 2:That they want to. Absolutely, I love it. All right. Well, this is where you get to do the plug. How do people get up with you? How can they get in touch if they want to get some shelf genie, uh, going on in their house?
Speaker 1:We've plugged it a lot, but um it's just shelf, geniecom, um shelf like a shelf and genie like genie in a bottlecom Um, you can see pictures on there. We also have Instagram and Facebook, obviously, um, and you can book an appointment right online.
Speaker 2:Awesome, makes it easy.
Speaker 1:Easy peasy.
Speaker 2:Cool, well, anything else you want to share? I don't think so Awesome.
Speaker 1:Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, of course. Thanks for coming on. I'm going to go ahead and say a little bit um and broke down maybe some of those stereotypes in your head about franchise versus local business.
Speaker 1:You know that really like you know our kids go to school together. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we're local.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's, it's not like, uh, it's not this big thing, it's like they, like we went to high school together, they live in the same community, pay the same taxes. You know, um, it's our business.
Speaker 1:You know the corp it's not a corporate owned store, it's our business. Um, so you know, our kids go to the home shows and stand on the floor On the booth and tell people well, shelf, jeannie Kenzie. This is a final thought, because this is funny, yeah, I love it.
Speaker 1:So when Kenzie was like I don't know, maybe we're like a year into the business, she was like two, two and a half. She seriously thought her middle name was Shelf Jeannie. She would be like we'd be like what's your name? And she says Kenzie, shelf Jeannie. And we're like no, it's Kenzie, you know? May Barefoot. She's like no Kenzie Shelf. Jeannie it like took her like a year to like realize that wasn't her middle name.
Speaker 2:Clearly I talk about work a lot at home, or something Right and I would take her around to all my sales calls. And be like this is listen to my child. She just says Shelf Jeannie.
Speaker 1:Shelf, jeannie, all the time you need it Absolutely.
Speaker 2:Well, thanks for coming on.
Speaker 1:It's been fun.
Speaker 2:Thanks for having me and you guys hit them up for any of your organizational needs here in the greater Wilmington area and beyond. Yep, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Thanks.
Speaker 2:Thanks everybody.